Maryland in Prose and Poetry 



Recitations and Readings Pertaining 
to the State : with Notes 



Compiled by 

EDWARD M. NOBLE 

EDWARD T. TUBBS 

Members Maryland Historical Society 



BALTIMORE 

LEHMEN PRINTING COMPANY 

1909 



2 7- 

14- 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 


Two Cooies Received 


MAH 22 1B09 


Copyritfnt £ntry 
CLASS tfU XXc. No. 



Copyright 1909 by 
Edward M. Noble and Edward T. Tubbs 



Published February, 1909 



INTRODUCTION. 



Definite and legal provision for Maryland Day, and 
the well-nigh general observance of the anniversary 
by our public schools, justify this volume, and must 
furnish the necessary excuse for its publication. 

The need of a well-arranged collection of Mary- 
land poems and prose excerpts fairly descriptive of 
the part our State and its people have played in 
making both State and national history, has been so 
keenly felt, especially for the past few years, that 
school officials and teachers will greet its appearance 
and appropriate its subject matter even though it 
might lack the usual words of introduction. It should 
be a desk book for every public school teacher. The 
selections have been made with much care and after 
considerable research by persons competent to under- 
take such painstaking work. The proof sheets of the 
publication were critically read by State and county 
school officials and everything done to make the book 
a valuable help to attain the ends for which its pub- 
lication was designed. 

The Maryland Day idea was conceived in a spirit 
of loyalty and patriotism, and the fire which has been 
kindled in the breast of the State's childhood should 
not be permitted to die out for lack of material to 
make this special anniversary both instructive and 
inspiring. The character of the annual observance 
should broaden and deepen until it becomes inten- 
sive enough to arouse both young and old to a high 



6 MARYLAND TN PROSE AND POETRY. 

sense of public duty and attach all more strongly 
to our State and its institutions. Love of country 
and state pride must be fostered in every public 
school because patriotism is at least a cornerstone 
on which the structure of good citizenship rests. 

Patriotic zeal does not lie dormant, as some er- 
roneously suppose, until aroused by the issues of 
war; the victories of peace are not less vital and 
illustrious than those of warfare. This phase of the 
child's education is a very important one and our 
public school forces must so plan instruction as to 
affect favorably human conduct. Indeed the encour- 
agement or development of good citizenship is the 
excuse of the State for assuming control of the pub- 
lic schools. Apart from any consideration of the 
daily routine work of the schoolroom, all of which 
is arranged to bring about a consummation of this 
purpose, the annual observance of the twenty-fifth 
day of March for the past five years has demon- 
strated the wisdom of having a special day at least 
once a year devoted to the study of the State and 
its history. We ought to provide the teachers with 
all needed material to arrange a program for the day 
which will be both entertaining and instructive. This 
book will aid materially in doing this and because of 
this conviction I most heartily approve and commend 
it to the officers and teachers of the public schools 
of Maryland. 

M. Baths Stephens, 

State Superintendent. 
Annapolis, Md., February 20, 1909. 



COMPILERS' PREFACE. 



The object of the compilers of this volume has been 
to gather in handy compass a collection of poems and 
extracts in prose and verse, from sources not generally 
accessible, touching on leading phases of Maryland 
history or having some special interest. 

The range of subject and comment before the com- 
pilers was wide and the number of selections that 
could be used was necessarily limited. No strict 
chronological order could be followed in their arrange- 
ment. Many of the selections ,are from serious and 
authoritative writings ; and while the novelist and the 
poet are to be allowed some license, care has been 
taken to include nothing not having historic truth and 
adaptability to the design of the volume. As a rule, 
no changes have been made in typographical pecu- 
liarities in the various selections. Thus, "Frederic" 
in "When Key Wrote His Song," and "Upper 
Marlbro' " are reprinted as spelled in the Taney let- 
ter; capitalization of the original has been followed. 
It will also be seen that some authors do not note 
changes in county lines, and the observant reader 
will keep in mind that there is much difference be- 
tween the present bounds of counties and those of 
a number of them at the time of the events spoken of. 

The notes, it is hoped, will be found useful and sug- 
gestive. They are arranged alphabetically, for easy 
reference, and where it has been thought advisable, 
data concerning men or events mentioned in an extract 



8 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

has been grouped under the author's name. Whenever 
matter in one selection which may appear obscure has 
been clearly treated in another the compilers have 
refrained from adding to the bulk of the notes. 

Intended for supplementary reading, and to inspire 
interest in the story of the State, this volume does not 
trench on the province of the textbook or the field of 
the special writer ; but affords a limited survey of some 
noteworthy contributions to literature relating to 
Maryland. 



\ 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 



For courtesy in permitting the use of selections from 
copyrighted publications and in otherwise assisting in 
the preparation of this volume, the compilers are in- 
debted to Little, Brown & Company, Boston; the At- 
lantic Monthly Company, Boston; J. B. Lippincott 
Company, Philadelphia ; Dr. J. M. Vincent, Johns Hop- 
kins University; Folger McKinsey, Baltimore; EHhu 
S. Riley, Annapolis; William H. Babcock, Washing- 
ton; Lynn R. Meekins, Baltimore; Marion V. Brew- 
ington, Salisbury; Edward Ingle, Baltimore; James 
W. Thomas, William C. Devecmon, Cumberland ; Miss 
Mary Bostwick Shellman, Westminster; J. B. Oder, 
Frostburg ; George Alfred Townsend, Washington ; L. 
Magruder Passano, Boston; F. B. Clegg, agent M. E. 
Book Room, Philadelphia ; the Century Company, New 
York; the Macmillan Company, New York; Presby- 
terian Board of Publication, Philadelphia; Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co., Boston; Mrs. Harriet H. Marine, Bal- 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



timore ; Mrs. Henrietta Lee Palmer, Baltimore ; J. Wirt 
Randall, Annapolis; Edwin Higgins, DeCourcy W. 
Thorn, Dr. B. C. Steiner, Miss Virginia Woodward 
Cloud, the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore; Dr. M. Bates 
Stephens and the State and County school officials. 
Librarian George W. McCreary, of the Maryland His- 
torical Society, and Mr. L,. H. Dielman, of the Enoch 
Pratt Library, Baltimore, gave valuable assistance. 




INDEX OF SELECTIONS 



POETRY 



Our Own Bold Chesapeake Coleman Yellott 16 

To the Potomac Rev. Dr. John N. McJilton. ... 16 

The Men of Old Kent Folger McKinsey 19 

A Fair Country — The Eastern Shore. William M. Marine 26 

Maryland John T. White 29 

A Tribute to Maryland John P. Smith 33 

Land of Pocomoke George Alfred Townsend 35 

In Maryland T. C. Harbaugh 37 

Commerce of the Colony George Alsop 40 

Early Spring in Maryland Gentleman's Magazine 41 

Fair Maryland Esmeralda Boyle (?) 44 

Our Native Land Amelia B. Welby. ' 46 

The Rivers of Maryland T. C. Harbaugh 50 

Sir John St. Clair George Alfred Townsend 56 

Ned Braddock Dr. John W. Palmer 58 

The Glades of Garrett Folger McKinsey 61 

Death or Liberty L. Magruder Passano 63 

Our Maryland State Is Beautiful. .John P. Smith 66 

Maryland Revolutionary Monument.Dr. G. C. Bombaugh 70 

The Maryland Line T. C. Harbaugh 74 

The Maryland Dead Frank Squier 79 

The Maryland Battalion Dr. John W. Palmer 80 

On Flag Day Edwin Biggins 82 

The Maryland Line .Esmeralda Boyle (?) 86 

The Old Senate Chamber Folger McKinsey 88 

The Sword of Washington Rev. Dr. John N. McJilton .... 92 

The Spirit of Maryland in 1794. .William Kilty 93 

To the Washington Monument .... Dr. N. C. Brooks 95 

The Star-Spangled Banner Francis- Scott Key 96 

Death of General Ross William M. Marine 106 

The Battle Monument, Baltimore . .Rev. Dr. John N. McJilton 107 



12 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

Baltimore Charles Soran 112 

Washington John Thomas 113 

The Chesapeake Edwin Biggins 131 

The Old National Road Ohio Magazine 132 

May at Buena Vista Albert Pike 134 

The Burial of Ringgold George Yellott 134 

Monody on Herman S. Thomas .... George Yellott 135 

District School in Winter Amanda E. Dennis 140 

On Chesapeake Bay E. W. Foote Gheeves 143 

Maryland, My Maryland James Ryder Randall 146 T 

Barbara Frietchie John G. Whittier 148 P 

A-Fightin' With Cole Harry J. Shellman 151 

Time and to Spare in Ancient 

Queen Anne's DeCourcy W. Thorn 156 

The Vale of Dulany George Yellott 160 

The Gunpowder River Michael A. McGirr 161 

Sonnets — St. John's, Annapolis, 

The Old Poplar, After Forty 

Year's Absence Bishop Pinkney 163 

Tulip Poplar, St. John's J. Wirt Randall 164 

Sonnet — St. John's Poplar Unknown 166 

On the Worcester Coast William H. Babcock 166 

The Ark and the Dove Folger McKinsey 168 

Terra Mariae Folger McKinsey 171 

The Emblem of Tranquility George Alsop 173 * 

The Patapsco Charles Soran 180 

By the Great Choptank River J. F. Gelletly 182 

Edgar Allan Poe's Grave William H. Babcock 182 

Maryland Village in Moonlight. . .Amelia B. Welby 183 

The Sires of Seventy-Six Rev. Dr. John N. McJilton 183 

The Red Clay Hills of Cecil Folger McKinsey 184 

The Autumn Fields of Maryland. .Folger McKinsey 194 

Out of a Frederick Window Folger McKinsey 197 

The Potomac River George Henry Calvert 198 

A Chesapeake Marsh Lizette Woodworth Reese 199 

PROSE 

The 25th of March B. C. Steiner 15 

Maryland's First Capital James W. Thomas 17 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 13 

Rencontre at the Black Chapel . . . John Pendleton Kennedy 20 

Calvert's Colony 27 

Great Seal of Maryland Clayton C. Hall 30 

Champion of Religious Freedom. .Alfred Pearce Dennis 31 

Maryland's Pioneer Governor James W. Thomas 34 

Old Maryland from the Ocean. . . .Rev. Dr. L. P. Bowen 36 

The Counties of Maryland 777 38 

Ingle, "Pirate and Rebel" Edward Ingle 41 

Maryland the Reflex of England. .Elihu 8. Riley 43 

, A Lofty Ideal Lewis W. Wilhelm 45 

J^-The Rise of Annapolis 47 

Sir Robert Eden B. C. Steiner 51 

Daniel Dulany John Van Lear McMahon 54 

Fort Cumberland William H. Lowdermilk 57 

The Rise of Western Maryland. . .Bernard C. Steiner 59 

The Tea Tax Winston Churchill 62 

Burning of the "Peggy Stewart". .Baltimore Patriot 64 

Maryland in the Revolution 68 

Monument to General Smallwood.A. K. Hadel 72 

The Battle Heroes of Maryland. . . George A. Pearre 75 

Governor Tom Johnson Dr. J. W. Palmer 81 

Tench Tilghman's Ride Bradley T. Johnson 83 

Washington and Montgomery Richard J. Bowie 87 

Birth of Montgomery County A. B. Davis 87 

Washington Surrenders His Com- 
mission DeCourcy W. Thorn 90 

When Key Wrote His Song Roger B. Taney. 97 

Parson Thomas and the British 

Army Rev. Adam Wallace 108 

Declaration on Taking Up Arms. .John Dickinson 113 

The Last Signer, Charles Carroll 

of Carrollton 115 

Thomas Stone D. W. Delisle 116 

Samuel Chase D. W. Delisle 118 

Last Days ot William Paca Robert Wilson 120 

The Tower of Wye William H. Babcock 121 

Margaret Brent, Lawyer Elihu 8. Riley 125 

Mistress Brent Demands a Vote. . Lucy Meacham Thruston 126 

Fate of Ancient Records John Pendleton Kennedy 129 

An Old-Time Maryland School Rev. Dr. Robert W. Todd 136 



14 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

Steadfastness of Chief Justice 

Taney Severn Teackle Wallis 141 

War in the Valley of Catoctin T. C. Harbaugh 144 

Jackson in Frederick Sara Andrew Shafer 150 

Henry Winter Davis John A. J. Gresivell 153 

Ideal of American Government. . .Denis J. Scully 155 

Old Queenstown William H. Babcock 158 

Claiborne William H. Babcock 158 

Old Mulberry Tree at St. Mary's . James W. Thomas 162 

Character of George Calvert John Pendleton Kennedy 169 

Father White in the Potomac. . . .Rev. Andrew White, S. J 172 

Landholding in the Colony George L. L. Davis 174 

DeCourcy's Ride William H. Babcock 175 

Dismemberment of Maryland Dr. George IV. Archer 185 

Augustine Herman-Bohemia Manor.Jawes Grant Wilson 190 

The Spesutie Fight George Morgan 195 

The Currency of the Colony Elizabeth W. Latimer 200 

Provisional Government of Mary- 
land John Archer Silver 201 

The Old Pike Thomas B. Searight 202 

Early State Government Beverly W. Bond, Jr 204 

The Chesapeake Oyster George Alfred Townsend 206 

The Federal Bulldog — Luther Mar- 
tin Henry P. Goddard 207 

Pinknev, "The Boast of Mary- 
land" 210 

William Pinkney, Statesman Thomas Hart Benton 211 

Impeachment of Judge Chase. . . .Henry P. Goddard 213 

John Eager Howard 215 

The Maryland Loyalists 220 

Dr. John Connolly 223 

Maryland Tea Party John Ellery Tuttle 225 

Logan and Cresap Brantz Mayer 227 

Adam Rush Lynn R. Meekins 229 

The Jew in Maryland Henrietta Szold 231 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 15 

THE TWENTY-FIFTH OF MARCH. 



The twenty-fifth of March is the day on which 
the first colonists sent out by Lord Baltimore landed 
on the soil of Maryland. In 1903 that day was cele- 
brated throughout the schools of the State as Mary- 
land Day . . . Lady Day in March is a fit time for 
the beginning of things. With the feast of the An- 
nunciation all mediaeval Christendom began the new 
year and tenants of land throughout England remem- 
bered it as the quarter-day, when rents were paid. 
No fitter day could be chosen than this as the natal 
day of that State which is Terra Mariae. No other 
day was so well suited for the first settlement of the 
province, and no other name could have been given 
to the place of settlement than the name which was 
hers to whom the day was dedicated, and hers from 
whom the province took its name. 

The pious men in the first company of settlers must 
have thought with pleasure on this coincidence of dates 
when they landed on the bank of the Potomac. Spring 
was at hand and with it bloomed Maryland into 
life . . . The settlers took a large tree on the island 
and, making it into a cross, the governor and commis- 
sioners, with the rest of the chiefest adventurers, car- 
ried it to a place prepared for it. There they erected 
the cross, celebrated the mass, and took "solemn pos- 
session of the country for our Saviour and for our 
Sovereign Lord the King of England." This was done 
on Tuesday, March 25> 1634, "Our blessed Lady's day 
in Lent." With this religious ceremony begin the 
acts of the settlers. McMahon calls this day "the 
birthday of a free people," worthy of commemoration 
to the latest day of their existence. 

—Bernard C. Steiner. 



16 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



OUR OWN BOLD CHESAPEAKE. 

Let others roam through foreign lands 

Renowned in ancient story, — 
And sing of Europe's classic strands, 

Her ruins wild x and hoary: 
But skies as clear, and scenes more dear, 
And lovelier far we seek 
On a steamer brave, o'er the sparkling wave 

Of our own bold Chesapeake. 

Say, where on earth are fields more fair, 

And where are lovelier waters? 
And O! can Europe's dames compare 

With Baltimore's sweet daughters? 
Then give to me our own bright sea, 

The steamer's joyous deck, 
And the forest brave and the sparkling wave 

Of our own bold Chesapeake. 

By day, as on its breast we rove 

No danger can betide us; 
By night the silver moon above 

And friendly lighthouse guide us. 
Then merry be, with song and glee: 

No lovelier scenes we'll seek 
Than the forest brave and the sparkling wave 

Of our own bold Chesapeake! 



■Coleman Yellolt. 



TO THE POTOMAC. 

Beautiful river! On thy buoyant waves 

How many fleets have floated, and how oft 

The loud "Yo heave!" has echoed from thy shores, 

As the old sailor neared his happy home, 

That like a bower rested on thy banks, 

And sung for very gladness at the thought 

Of hailing those he loved — his wife, his child — 

From whom the waves had parted him so long. 

— Rev. John N. McJilton, D. D. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 17 



MARYLAND'S FIRST CAPITAL. 



Thus did the ancient City of Saint Mary's spring 
into being, flourish and pass away. In the "very State 
to which it gave birth ;" in the State whose foundations 
it erected ; in the State many of whose most valued in- 
stitutions and more ancient principles of organic law 
it established, it today stands almost a "solitary spot, 
dedicated to God, and a fit memento of perishable 
man." 

But it is one which, as long as civilization shall 
endure upon the earth, will be memorable in the his- 
tory of its development. The philosopher and states- 
man, when tracing back the progress of the political 
systems of men, from the loftiest heights they shall 
ever reach, will always pause upon the banks of the 
Saint Mary's to contemplate one of the greatest epochs 
in their history. It was there that, under the auspices 
of the founders of the State of Maryland, the injured 
freemen of England found a refuge from the depreda- 
tions of royal power; it was there that the inherent 
rights of man found opportunity for growth to strength 
and vigor away from the depressing tyranny of kings ; 
it was there that the ancient privileges of the people 
that came down with the succeeding generations of 
our fathers from the morning twilight of Anglo-Saxon 
history, struggling through the centuries of varying 
fortunes, at last found a home and a country as all- 
pervading as the atmosphere around them ; it was there 
that these principles and rights first entered into the 
practical operations of government; it was there that 
was established the first State in America where the 
people were governed by laws made by themselves; it 



18 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



was there that was organized the first civil govern- 
ment in the history of the Christian world which was 
administered under that glorious principle of Ameri- 
can liberty — the independence of Church and State in 
their relation to each other; it was there, too, that 
freedom of conscience in all of its breadth and fullness 
was first proclaimed to men as their inherent and in- 
violable right in tones which, sounding above the tem- 
pest of bigotry and persecution, were to continue for- 
ever, from age to age, to gladden the world with the 
assurance of practical Christian charity and ultimately 
find expression in the political systems of every civi- 
lized people. 

Such was the halo surrounding Maryland's early 
colonial metropolis, and yet the present generation asks 
when and where it was ; such the renown of Mary- 
land's first capital, embodying in its history the germ 
of so much of that which gave grandeur and glory as 
well as inspiration and pride to the later annals of the 
State, and yet, history has recorded its birth without 
a smile, and written its epitaph without a tear. 

In desolation and ruin, as it is, and though its hearth- 
stone is buried beneath the moss of so many years, it 
should be revered as a hallowed spot ; sacred to the 
"proudest memories" of Maryland ; endeared in the 
pride and in the affection of its sons and its daughters ; 
the glory of every American patriot; for it was the spot 
where first arose the radiant morning sun of our re- 
ligious freedom ; the spot where first broke and bright- 
ened into effulgent daylight the early dawn of our 
civil liberty. 

—James W. Thomas. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 19 

THE MEN OF OLD KENT. 

Ta-lara, ta-lara, the hounds hear the horn, 

The bugles of Kentland have challenged the morn, 

The brush of sly Reynard is bobbing a-glee 

O'er gully and bramble, beneath the green tree! 

Ta-lara, ta-lara, away the pack goes 

Up, beauties of Kentland, with cheeks of the rose! 

Ta-lara, ta-lara, the bugles are sweet 

That call the gay rally through orchard, o'er wheat! 

The men of old Kent give one cup to the morn, 

One cup to the stirrup, then off to the horn, 

And wild in the revel, with sweethearts and wives, 

Ta-lara, ta-lara, they ride for their lives! 

The men of old Kent with their courtly, fine grace, 

The ruddy, red wine of the wind on their face; 

The daughters, the daughters, ah, maidens of dream, 

To horse for the dare-devil leap o'er the stream! 

Bramble path, briar hedge, never a fear — 

While youth's in the blood and the bugles ring clear! 

Ta-lara, sweet Chester! Afar o'er your tide 
The cries of the chase and the revelry glide. 
Ta-lara, sweet Kentland! O'er orchard and plain 
The morning rings sweet with the jocund refrain, 
And eyes speak to eyes in a language the horn 
Plays up to the pipes of the rosy-sweet morn! 

Far ringing, far swinging, the hounds are away, 
The woodland's awake with their deep-throated bay; 
The bark of the quarry, the scent of his trail 
Are over the dawn-breath of meadow and vale! 
Ta-lara, sweet Kentland! Across thy fair bounds 
Then home again, home again, follow the hounds! 

Home again, ladies, and home again, men! 

Home from the bracken and home from the glen; 

Wild ring the bugles, the brush shall be fair 

To deck Kentish sweethearts, to garland the hair! 

Wax the oak flooring and rosin the bows, 

And choose ye a maiden — each maid is a rose! 



20 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



Heigh-ho, the fiddles of love's young romance, 
The men of old Kent are a-swing to the dance, 
The quarry is captured, the hounds are at rest, 
The sun over Chester glows gold in the west; 
Hearts beat to music and crimson lips sing, 
And roses are red in the sweet cheeks of spring! 

Ta-lara, ta-lara, o'er barley and corn 

Ring softly the echoes that woke the red morn! 

The men of old Kent lift their glasses in air, 

For love of the ladies, for hearts of the fair, 

And loud ring the toasts and sweet is the praise 

Where eyes speak to eyes in the old sweetheart ways! 

Ta-lara, brave hunters! Blow, bugles of dream! 
Rise, sweet of the past, in the fancy's fair gleam! 
Dance, dames and fair maidens! And men of old Kent 
(With eyes on the red cheeks of revelry bent), 
There by the lowboy, with glasses in air — 
God's grace to the sweethearts that waHz with you there! 

— Folger McKinsey. 



RENCONTRE AT THE BLACK CHAPEL. 



Some little time was spent in kindling a fire, which 
had no sooner begun to blaze than Dauntrees, with the 
Ranger and the Indian, set forth on their reconnois- 
sance of the Chapel, leaving Weasel assured that he 
was rendering important service in guarding the pro- 
vender and comforting himself by the blazing fagots. 

They walked briskly across the open ground toward 
the water, and as they now approached the spot which 
common rumour had invested with so many terrors, 
even these bold adventurers themselves were not with- 
out some misgivings. 

"By my troth, Arnold," said Dauntrees, as they 
strode forward, "although we jest at yonder white- 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 21 

livered vintner, this matter we have in hand might 
excuse an ague in a stouter man. I care not to con- 
fess that the love I bear his Lordship, together with 
some punctilio of duty, is the only argument that 
might bring me here tonight. I would rather stand a 
score of pikes in an onset with my single hand, where 
the business is with flesh and blood, than buffet with a 
single imp of the Wizard. They say these spirits are 
quick to punish rashness." 

"As Lord Charles commands we must do his bid- 
ding," replied the forester. "When the business in 
hand must be done I never stop to think of the danger 
of it. If we should not get back, Lord Charles has 
as good men to fill our places* I have been scared 
more than once by these night devils till my hair 
lifted my cap with fright, but I never lost my wits 
so far as not to strike or to run at the good season." 

"I am an old rover and have had my share of gob- 
lins," returned the Captain, "and never flinched to 
sulphur or brimstone, whether projected by the breath 
of a devil or a culverin. I am not to be scared now 
from my duty by any of Paul Kelpy's brood, though 
I say again I like not this strife with shadows. His 
Lordship shall not say we failed in our outlook . . . 
Why do you halt, Pamesack?" 

"I hear the tread of a foot," replied the Indian. 

"A deer stalking on the shore of the creek," said 
Dauntrees. 

"More like the foot of a man," returned Pamesack, 
in a lowered voice. "We should talk less to make our 
way safe. There is the growl of a dog." 

Arnold now called the attention of his companions 
to the outlines of a low hut, which was barely discern- 



22 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

able through the wood, where an open space brought 
the angle of the roof into relief against the water of 
the creek, and as they approached near enough to 
examine the little structure more minutely they were 
saluted by the surly bark of a deep-throated dog, 
fiercely redoubled. At the same time the sound of 
receding footsteps was distinctly audible. 

"Who dwells here?" inquired Dauntrees, striking 
the door with the hilt of his sword. 

There was no answer and the door gave way to 
the thrust and flew wide open. The apartment was 
tenantless. A few coals of fire gleaming from the em- 
bers, and a low bench furnished with a blanket rendered 
it obvious that this solitary abode had been but recently 
deserted by its possessors. A hasty survey of the 
hut, which was at first fiercely disputed by the dog — 
a cross-grained and sturdy mastiff — until a sharp blow 
from a staff which the forester bestowed sent him 
growling from the premises, satisfied the explorers 
that so far, at least ,they had encountered nothing 
supernatural, and without further delay or comment 
upon this incident they took their course along the 
margin of St. Jerome's Creek. After a short interval, 
the beating of the waves upon the beach informed 
them that they had reached the neighborhood of the 
shore of the Chesapeake. Here a halt and an atten- 
tive examination of the locality made them aware 
that they stood upon a bank, which descended some- 
what abruptly to the level of the beach that lay some 
fifty yards or more beyond them. In the dim star- 
light they were able to trace the profile of a low but 
capacious tenement which stood almost on the tide 
mark. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 23 



"It is the Chapel," said Dauntrees in an involuntary 
whisper, as he touched the Ranger's arm. 

"It is Paul Kelpy's house, all the same, as I have 
known it these twenty years — a silent and wicked 
house," whispered Arnold in reply. 

"And a pretty spot for the devil to lurk in," said 
Dauntrees, resuming his ordinary tone. 

"Hold, Captain," interrupted the Ranger, "no foul 
words so near the Haunted House. The good saints 
be above us," he added, crossing himself and mutter- 
ing a short prayer. 

"Follow me down the bank," said Dauntrees, in 
a low but resolute voice, "but first look to your car- 
bines that they be charged and primed. I will break 
in the door of this ungodly den and ransack its cor* 
ners before I leave it. Holy St. Michael, the Arch- 
fiend is in the Chapel and warns us away!" he ex- 
claimed, as suddenly a flash of crimson light illumi- 
nated every window in the building. "It is the same 
warning given to Burton and myself once before. 
Stand your ground, comrades; we shall be beset by 
these ministers of sin !" 

As the flashes of this lurid light were thrice re- 
peated, Pamesack was seen on the edge of the bank 
fixed like a statue, with foot and arm extended, look- 
ing with a stern gaze towards this appalling specta- 
cle. Arnold recoiled a pace and brought his hand 
across his eyes, and was revealed in this posture as 
he exclaimed in his marked Dutch accent: "The 
fisherman's blood is turned to fire; we had best go 
no further, masters." Dauntrees had advanced half 
way down the bank, and the glare disclosed him as 
suddenly arrested in his career; his sword gleamed 



24 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



above his head, whilst his short cloak was drawn 
by the motion of his left arm under his chin, and 
his broad beaver, pistoled belt and wide boots, now 
tinged with the premature light, gave to his figure 
that rich effect which painters are pleased to copy. 

"I saw Satan's imps within the chamber," exclaimed 
the Captain. "As I would the blessed Martyrs be 
with us, I saw the very servitors of the Fiend ! They 
are many and mischievous, and shall be defied though 
we battle with the Prince of the Air. What ho, I 
defy thee! In the name of our patron, the holy and 
blessed St. Ignatius, I defy thee !" 

There was a deeper darkness as Dauntrees rushed 
almost to the door of the house with his sword in his 
hand. Again the same deep flashes of fire illumined 
the windows, and two or three figures in grotesque 
costumes, with strange, unearthly faces, were seen 
for the instant within. Dauntrees retreated a few 
steps nearer to his companions, and drawing his pistol 
held it ready for instant use. It was discharged at 
the windows with the next flash of the light, and the 
report was followed by a hoarse and yelling laugh 
from the tenants of the house. 

"Once more I defy thee!" shouted the Captain, 
with a loud voice ; "and in the name of our holy church, 
and by the order of the Lord Proprietary, I demand 
what do you here with these hellish rites?" 

The answer was returned in a still louder laugh 
and in a shot fired at the challenger, the momentary 
light of the explosion revealing, as Dauntrees im- 
agined, a cloaked figure presenting a harquebuss 
through the window. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 25 

"Protect yourselves, friends," he exclaimed, "with 
such shelter as you may find," at the same time re- 
treating to the cover of an oak which stood upon the 
bank. "These demons show weapons like our own. 
I will e'en ply the trade with thee, accursed spirits!" 
he added, as he discharged a second pistol. 

The Ranger and Pamesack had already taken shel- 
ter, and their carbines were also leveled and fired. 
Some two or three shots were returned from the house, 
accompanied with the same rude laugh which attended 
the first onset, and the scene, for a moment, would 
have been thought rather to resemble the assault and 
defense of mortal foes than the strife of men with 
intangible goblins, but that there were mixed with 
it other accompaniments altogether unlike the circum- 
stance of mortal battle ; a loud, heavy sound as of 
rolling thunder echoed from the interior of the Chapel 
and in the glimpses of light the antic figures within 
were discerned as dancing with strange and prepos- 
terous motions. 

"It avails us not to contend against these fiends," 
said Dauntrees. "They are enough to maintain their 
post against us, even if they fought with human im- 
plements. Our task is accomplished by gaining sight 
of the Chapel and its inmates. We may certify what 
we have seen to his Lordship ; so, masters, move 
warily and quickly rearward. Ay, laugh again, you 
juggling minions of the devil!" he said, as a hoarse 
shout of exultation resounded from the house, when 
the assailants commenced their retreat. "Put on the 
shape of men and we may deal with you! Forward, 
Arnold; if we tarry our retreat may be vexed with 
dangers against which we are not provided." 



26 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 






"I hope this is the last time we shall visit this devil's 
den," said Arnold, as he obeyed the Captain's injunc- 
tion, and moved, as rapidly as his long stride would 
enable him to walk, from the scene of their late as- 
sault. • 

—John Pendleton Kennedy. 



A FAIR COUNTRY— THE EASTERN SHORE. 

Fair country, through which rivers flow, 
In slender forms, like silver threads, 

Where, mirrored in their surface glow 

The whitened sail of commerce spreads! 

The swift wave rolls upon the deep, 

There cutters ride where white caps toss, 

And schooners scud with graceful sweep, 
In haste the briny bay to cross. 

The birds sing notes of cheerful praise 

In melody that's unsurpassed; 
Out from the wealth of golden days 

The harvest riches are amassed. 

Fair country, through which rivers flow, 
How beautiful your noontides glow! 

A stillness spreads beneath the skies 
And wonderful the landscape lies. 

The poet halts beside your flood 

And broods in silence by its spell; 
He treads the mazes of your wood 

Only to hear a funeral knell. 

And well-known forms in fancy's sight — 

They troop about his heart to play; 

Back from the shades of long good night, 

To tarry in his memory. 

— William M. Marine. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 27 

CALVERT'S COLONY. 



The beginnings of the history of Maryland are asso- 
ciated with that great epoch in the constitutional his- 
tory of England which had its manifest rise in the reign 
of James I — when Parliament withstood the Crown 
and the country party defied the court party, and the 
train of events was laid which led ultimately to the 
plain of Marston Moor, the rout of Naseby, the dread 
block of Whitehall and the mist-crowned hills of Dun- 
bar. The fascinating and tragic story of the Stuarts 
is interwoven with the settlement and early years of 
the colony ; the contest between Cavalier and Round- 
head, Catholic and Puritan in England had its counter- 
part in Maryland. The public career of Sir George 
Calvert, the pupil of Cecil in statecraft, Secretary of 
State and Privy Councilor, connects the origin of 
Maryland with the reign of James, and throws light 
upon the motives which led to the establishment of 
the "Land of the Sanctuary." Calvert's conversion to 
the Roman Catholic faith, his retirement from politics, 
his effort to found the colony of Avalon in Newfound- 
land, his visit to Virginia and his hostile reception 
there, and his death just before the charter of Terra 
Mariae had passed the Great Seal, are parts of the in- 
teresting story which precede the landing of the Ark 
and the Dove at St. Clement's Island and the mass on 
the Feast of the Annunciation. The charter of Mary- 
land, granted to Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Balti- 
more, is the most remarkable document of the kind in 
American history. It made of the province a pala- 
tinate, a principality in itself, and vested in the Prop- 
rietary supreme powers of government. The wisdom 



28 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

and judiciousness with which Baltimore exercised 
these, and the broad and sagacious plan which his 
father laid for his project, have been the admiration of 
succeeding statesmen and historians. 

As a colony, the history of Maryland is full of inci- 
dent. Co-eval with its establishment the jealousy of 
Virginia was aroused, and early in its annals appears 
the naval battle in the Pocomoke. Clayborne's trad- 
ing-post on the "He of Kent" divides attention at the 
outset of our provincial story with the landing of the 
colonists, and the purchase by Governor Leonard 
Calvert of the Indian village of Yaocomico, as the site 
of the city of St. Mary's. The claims of Clayborne to 
prior occupation of the territory, his "rebellion" against 
the authority of Baltimore, and all the conflicts and 
intrigues of that time in Maryland, in Virginia and in 
the palace of Whitehall, afford material for interesting 
study. The "rebellions" of Ingle, of Coode and Fen- 
dall, the effect upon Maryland of the civil commotions 
in England, Indian troubles and their causes ; the 
ascendancy of the Puritans during the Cromwellian 
period, the suspension of the charter by William, and 
the restoration of the province to the Protestant 
Charles, fifth Lord Baltimore ; the controversy with 
Penn about boundaries, and the running of Mason's 
and Dixon's Line; depredations of the Indians on the 
western frontier during the French and Indian War 
and the many moving events of Governor Horatio 
Sharpe's administration bring the history of Maryland 
down to the closing era of Proprietary government. 
Six Lords Baltimore were laid in their graves by 1771, 
and the line which began so gloriously and auspici- 
ously with George had ended with the dissolute Fred- 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 29 

erick. To him succeeded his natural son Henry Har- 
ford, a minor, and from 1769 to 1774 the governor was 
Sir Robert Eden, whose wife was a Calvert. In 
Sharpe's day had arisen the questions of taxation — 
pressed upon England by the stern necessities which 
faced her after the treaty of Paris, and Hood, stamp- 
distributor, had been driven, by ungentle hints and 
overt acts, from the province. The Frederick county 
court transacted its business in defiance of the Stamp 
Act. The beginning of the end of British rule in 
America had come, and Maryland's own sons and 
daughters have been among the most backward in 
learning and maintaining her proud position in that 
period. The "Boston Tea Party" was disguised in 
Indian blankets and feathers, but the owner of the tea- 
laden Peggy Stewart was compelled, in the light of 
day, by men whom everyone knew, *o burn his vessel 
and cargo in Annapolis harbor. The people seized the 
reins of government in 1774 and administered the af- 
fairs of the province through the Convention until the 
time had arrived for them to declare Maryland a free 
and independent State. 



MARYLAND. 



We dedicate our song to thee, 

Maryland, my Maryland. 
The home of light and liberty, 

Maryland, my Maryland. 
We love thy streams and wooded hills, 
Thy mountains with their gushing rills, 
Thy scenes — our heart with rapture fills — 

Maryland, my Maryland! 



30 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

In twain the Chesapeake divides 

Maryland, my Maryland. 
While oceanward its water glides, 

Maryland, my Maryland. 
Yet we in thought and purpose one 
Pursue the work so well begun, 
And may our State be ne'er outdone, 

Maryland, my Maryland! 

Proud sons and daughters boast of thee, 

Maryland, my Maryland. 
Thine is a precious history, 

Maryland, my Maryland. 
Brave hearts have held thy honor dear, 
Have met the foemen far and near, 
But victory has furnished cheer, 

Maryland, my Maryland! 

"Sail on, sail on, O ship of state!" 

Maryland, my Maryland. 
May we. thy children, make thee great. 

Maryland, my Maryland. 
May gratitude our hearts possess 
And boldly we thy claims express, 
And bow in loving thankfulness, 

Maryland, my Maryland! 

—John T. White. 



THE GREAT SEAL OF MARYLAND. 



The Great Seal of Maryland presents a marked con- 
trast to those of the other States of the American 
Union in that its device consists of armorial bearings 
of a strictly heraldic character, being in fact the family 
arms of the Lords Baltimore, which were placed by the 
first Proprietary upon the Seal of the Province at the 
time of its founding. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 31 

Most of the States have upon their seals emblems 
indicative of agriculture, or kindred subjects, repre- 
sented in a more or less pictorial or allegorical man- 
ner. The colonies that were governed directly under 
the British crown formerly had seals upon which were 
symbols of the royal authority ; but these were dis- 
carded at the time of the Revolution, and in their stead 
were adopted devices more in harmony with the new 
order of affairs. The New England Colony and Vir- 
ginia, for example, had seals bearing upon the obverse 
the effigy of the sovereign, and upon the reverse the 
royal arms of Great Britain. The seal of Carolina 
had depicted on one side horns of plenty and other 
symbols of a youthful colony, and upon the other the 
arms of the eight Lords Proprietors, but this seal, like 
those of the royal colonies, has become a thing of 
the past. 

Maryland, like the other States, put aside shortly 
after the Revolution the seal in use during the colonial 
period, and adopted one supposed to be more in con- 
sonance with the spirit of republican institutions ; but 
after awhile the historic interest attaching to the old 
Provincial Seal came to be recognized, and the ancient 
coat-of-arms was finally, by legislative enactment, re- 
stored to the Seal of the State. 

— Clayton C. Hall. 



CHAMPION OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 



The impartial verdict of history must concede to 
Calvert's Catholic colony the proud distinction of being 
the first, and, for a generation, the sole champion of 



32 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

religious freedom on the Western Hemisphere. Con- 
troversy has centered about the famous Toleration 
Act of 1649. Protestants, as well as Catholics, have 
claimed the honor of its passage. The early religious 
freedom of which we boast had neither genesis nor 
supports in legislative enactments. Religious tolera- 
tion prevailed as a habit of the settlers of St. Mary's, 
forceful and wholesome as an inchoate law, years be- 
fore the hybrid statute of 1649 was submitted to vote. 
Unfriendly critics have further urged that this Cath- 
olic toleration had its genesis in political necessity, 
and was nurtured by a broad policy of farsighted self- 
interest. We reject the unworthy imputation that the 
colonists of St. Mary's knew no higher sanction for 
their tolerance than the restrictions of a charter or the 
dictates of the commonplace law of self-interest. The 
course of history prior to the seventeenth century has 
been sufficient to show the irrelation between low 
ideals of conduct and religious persecution. Toleration 
was the child of force, not of philosophic calm . . . 
We must look into the spirit of bygone times in order 
to appreciate the true worth and meaning of the great 
principle upheld by these settlers of St. Mary's. They 
had to suffer much, to surrender much, to obey, in 
the land of their nativity; with true nobility they 
welcome their former oppressors to their newfound 
lands beyond the sea ; with true nobility they pledge 
their officers not to molest any "person professing to 
believe in Jesus Christ for or in respect of religion." 
Whatever the motive, the world had not in that day 
seen the like. 

—Alfred Pearce Dennis. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 33 



A TRIBUTE TO MARYLAND. 

On the Two Hundred and Seventy-fourth Anniversary of Her 
Settlement. 

[Respectfully dedicated to the State and county superin- 
tendents, teachers and pupils of the public schools of Mary- 
land.] 

Hail, Maryland! thou grand old State, 

Today thy birth we celebrate, 

And raise our thankful voices high 

To Him, the God of earth and sky. 

Hail to the Calverts! dear of old, 

Who braved the storm and sleet and cold, 

To found a land untrammeled free, 

A land of sacred liberty. 

Hail to the vessels Ark and Dove, 
Glad messengers of peace and love, 
Bearing true hearts across the sea; 
Hearts of religious liberty. 

Dear Maryland, I love thy hills, 
Thy winding rivers, tiny rills, 
Thy mountains, bathed in glory grand, 
A type of Prince Immanuel's Land. 

My heart with fondest rapture thrills 
When I survey thy plains and hills, 
And thank my God forever more 
That I reside on Maryland's shore. 

'Tis here my childhood's hours were spent 
In happiness and peace content, 
To worship Him in paeans grand, 
With freedom, truth, in Maryland. 

Of all the lands in East or West 
I love old Maryland State the best; 
Her noble sons majestic stand — 
The pride and glory of the land. 



34 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

My visions of her deeds are bright; 
Her sires and sons for truth and right 
Dared, in the face of England's power, 
To stand for right when storms did lower. 

When in the evening time of life 
Are hushed the busy cares and strife, 
My thoughts shall turn to Maryland; 
To me the grandest of the band. 

To all the States I give my hand, 
My heart I give to Maryland. 
For her my prayers shall e'er ascend — 
My home, my State, till time shall end. 

And when my race on earth is run, 
And slowly sinks life's setting sun, 
Then lay my body down to rest 
On Maryland soil, the grandest, best. 

— John Philemon Smith. 



MARYLAND'S PIONEER GOVERNOR. 



Of the life and character of Leonard Calvert, his- 
torians have said but little. While there is no desire 
to detract from the unfading lustre which they have 
accorded to the Proprietaries of Maryland, truth and 
justice alike demand that of the pioneer Governor of 
the Province, and the founder of Saint Mary's, it 
should here be said that he, who left his native land to 
lead the pilgrim colonists to Maryland; he who faced 
the perils and clangers and stood the heat and fire of 
storm and battle, which so often darkened its early 
colonial days ; he who first proclaimed and laid in 
practice those fundamental principles which underlie 
the priceless boon of liberty of conscience; he, who, 
with untiring energy, fidelity and zeal devoted the best 



.MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 35 

years of his life to the development and glory of Mary- 
land, and to the prosperity and happiness of its citi- 
zens; he, whose undaunted courage, wise and liberal 
statesmanship, and mild and gentle government are 
so closely associated with the foundation, early growth 
and permanent establishment of Maryland, should 
stand upon the pages of history no less distinguished 
and renowned, as long as valiant service to early 
Maryland has an admirer or civil and religious liberty 
a friend. 

— James W. Thomas. 



LAND OF POCOMOKE. 

The pungy boats at anchor swing, 

The long canoes were oystering, 
And moving barges played the seine. 

Along the beaches of Tangiers; 
I heard the British drums again 

As in their predatory years, 
When Kedge's Straits the Tories swept, 

And Ross's camp-fires hid in smoke. 
They plundered all the coasts except 

The camp the island Parson kept 
For praying men of Pocomoke. 



The world in this old nook may peep, 

And think it listless and asleep; 
But I have seen the world enough 

To think its grandeur something dull, 
And here were men of sterling stuff, 

In their own era wonderful: 
Young Luther Martin's wayward race, 

And William Winder's core of oak, 
The lion heart of Samuel Chase, 

And great Decatur's royal face, 
And Henry Wise of Pocomoke. 

— George Alfred Townsend. 



36 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 
OLD MARYLAND FROM THE OCEAN. 



And yonder at last is Maryland ! The mysterious 
New World, long dreamed of, is now dawning upon 
our view under the slanting beams of the rising May 
sun. Before we retired to sleep last night in our sea 
cradle the captain promised a pleasant surprise to early 
risers, and just as the round orb of day is about to 
roll up out of the horizon of waters we are hurried 
on deck to take our first look at the scene of many 
hazy hopes and untried possibilities. Here we sit 
upon the prow of the brigantine and drop into silence, 
gazing upon the moving shores and feeling as only 
fleeing exiles can feel. 

Slowly from the crest of breakers emerges the low 
coast. Long arrays of white hills chase one another 
to the north and the south like snowdrifts beyond the 
blue billows, but as we draw nearer and see the tum- 
bling waves bursting into foam, their shining spray 
throws into dimmer shade the sunny sands. Beyond 
the hills we discover an interior sheet of placid waters 
lying in serene beauty between the beach and the main, 
expanding and contracting in graceful curves up and 
down the view. On the other side of this inner sound 
the eye is gladdened with the sight of green wood- 
lands, their variegated hues contrasting pleasantly 
with the intervening sparkle of snow and silver, and 
by their repose of beauty resting the tired gaze from 
the incessant ocean-motion of days and weeks. 

So, I am told, 182 years ago the great voyager, Se- 
bastian Cabot, passed southward along the coast 
from Newfoundland, looking upon these same hills 
and the lands over yonder, gazing through the inlets 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 37 

with curiosity sublime, then turning away his helm 
from the thirty-eighth parallel and carrying home to 
England the sure announcement of a new continent. 
The first European that ever beheld the white beaches 
of Maryland, the brave navigator was dreaming of the 
Indies and their spices and gold with all the romance 
of 1498 ; but he did not know how Jehovah's hand was 
at the helm preparing a refuge for the suffering and 
oppressed of the Old World in the years of great need. 

Rev. L. P. Bowen, D. D. 



IN MARYLAND. 

Methinks the grass is always green, 

In Maryland, 
And matchless is each sylvan scene, 

In Maryland; 
The laughing rivers as they run 
Thro' verdant vales to seas of sun 
Are clear as crystal, every one, 

In Maryland. 

The rose a newer beauty gets, 

In Maryland, 
And bluer are the violets, 

In Maryland; 
Methinks the birds have sweeter lays, 
The lassies more enticing ways, 
And endless seem the summer days, 

In Maryland. 

The stars with brighter luster shine, 

In Maryland, 
The grapes are bluer on the vine, 

In Maryland; 
The everlasting mountains rise 
With fairer peaks toward the skies, 
And closer are the old home ties, 

In Maryland. 



38 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

Ihe truest hearts doth throb and beat, 

In Maryland, 
And kinder are the friends you meet, 

In Maryland; 
Deep in the heart of every rose 
The sentiments of love repose, 
Unchilled by cold, unhurt by foes, 

In Maryland. 

There is a song in every brook, 

In Maryland, 
And beauty in each cosy nook, 

In Maryland; 

A hearty welcome greets you there, 

With love and friendship in the air, 

'Tis true you find it everywhere — 

In Maryland. 

— T. 0. Harbaugh. 



THE COUNTIES OF MARYLAND. 



First, the colonists founded the city of St. Mary's ; 
then the county of St. Mary's, with the hundreds 
division of an English shire. The reduction of Clay- 
borne's trading-post and the peopling of Kent Island 
and the mainland adjacent made the second county. 
Calvert and Charles may be looked upon as growing 
out of St. Mary's. The Puritans from Virginia, seek- 
ing a new home and political expansion, settled Provi- 
dence, on the Severn, brought about the formation of 
Anne Arundel, defeated Governor Stone and the 
Cavaliers who cried "Hey, for St. Mary's," on the 
banks of the Severn, and this was prominent among 
the series of events which fixed the capital of the State 
at Annapolis, and left the city of Leonard Calvert to 
sink into a memory. Troubles with the Susquehan- 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 39 

nocks and with the Pennsylvanians made the peopling 
of the northern section of the State a political necessity, 
and Baltimore county, with its generous expanse of 
territory, was the outcome. The futile effort to estab- 
lish the town of Joppa, and the seemingly accidental 
springing into life of Baltimore Town, destined from 
the beginning to become the metropolis of Maryland, 
should be noted. Prince George's embraced all the 
lands above and to the westward of its present location, 
and its old family names are now met with in Allegany, 
Frederick, Garrett and Washington. The two Revo- 
lutionary counties are named after the lamented soldier 
who fell under the walls of Quebec, and the greatest of 
Americans. Just before the Revolution Harford was 
i taken from Baltimore and Caroline from Dorchester 
!and Queen Anne's, while Allegany is contemporary 
with the constitutional government of the United 
States. The influx of settlers from above its northern 
boundary gave to Frederick the characteristic family 
! nomenclature of southern Pennsylvania. Dutch and 
Swedes came into Cecil from the settlements on the 
Delaware, and Quakers from Pennsylvania ; Virginia 
and English Puritans were among the earliest colonists 
in Talbot. The good Queen Anne, whose gifts of 
silver service are treasured in old Episcopal Churches, 
is not forgotten on either of the Shores. Williamstadt, 
in Talbot, was projected as the future chief city across 
the bay, counterpart of Annapolis. The counties below 
the Great Choptank came into existence when the tide 
of immigration began to flow upward from eastern Vir- 
ginia. First Somerset, then Dorchester, and then 
Worcester, were carved out of this territory. A Wor- 
cester county might have existed in different shape but 



40 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

for Hardwicke's decision of the Penn claim, and 
Cresap's boast, when led in chains to Philadelphia, that 
it was "the fairest city in all Maryland" had foundation 
in the territory defined in the Maryland charter. For 
nearly half a century Maryland had nineteen counties. 
Then Carroll was taken from Frederick and Baltimore, 
and fourteen years later Howard District of Anne 
Arundel became Howard County. Wicomico was 
formerly included in Somerset and Worcester, and Gar- 
rett in Allegany. The counties came into being in 
different modes. Wicomico and Howard were created 
by organic law; Montgomery and Washington were 
taken from Frederick on the same day by resolve of 
Convention. In colonial times counties were formed 
by Act of Assembly, as they have been since, or by act 
of the Proprietary. For years before the date fre- 
quently accepted as that of the organization of Kent, 
"Kent County" and the "lie and County of Kent" are 
found in the records. 



COMMERCE OF THE COLONY. 

Trafique is Earth's great Atlas, that supports 

The pay of Armies, and the heighth of Courts, 

And makes Mechanicks live, that else would die 

Meer starving Martyrs to their penury; 

None but the Merchant of this thing can boast; 

He, like the Bee, comes loaden from each Coast, 

And to all Kingdoms, as within a Hive, 

Stows up those riches that doth make them thrive: 

Be thrifty, Mary-Land, keep what thou has in store, 

And each year's Trafique to thyself get more. 

— George Alsop. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 41 

INGLE: "PIRATE AND REBEL." 



As to Ingle's having been a "rebel," the facts all 
point to his participation in the beginning of a rebel- 
lion, caused probably by those dissatisfied with Leon- 
ard Calvert's rule, more probably by the influence of 
William Claiborne, who in spite of condemnatory acts 
by the Maryland Assembly, and the vacillating meas- 
ures of Charles I, insisted for many years upon his 
right to Kent Island. But rebellion is viewed in differ- 
ent ways : by those against whom it is made, with hor- 
ror and detestation; by those who make it, with pride 
and oft times with devotion. If Ingle led on the rebel- 
lion, he was acting in Maryland only as Cromwell after- 
wards did on a larger scale in England, and as Bacon, 
the brave and the noble, did in Virginia, and to be 
placed in the category with many, who will be handed 
down to future generations as rebels, will be no dis- 
credit to the first Maryland rebel. 

—^Edward Ingle. 



EARLY SPRING IN MARYLAND (1730). 

At Length the wintry Horrors disappear 

And April views with Smiles the infant year, 

(The grateful Earth from frosty chains unbound, 

Pours out its vernal treasures all around. 

Her face bedeckt with Grass, with Buds the Trees are 

crowned) 
In this soft Season, ere the dawn of Day, 
I mount my horse and lonely take my way 
From woody Hills that shade Patapsko's Head 
In whose deep Vales he makes his stony bed, 
From whence he rushes with resistless Force, 
Tho' huge, rough rocks retard his rapid course. 



42 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



Down to Annapolis on that smooth stream, 

Which took from fair Anne Arundel its name, 

And now the Star that ushers in the Day, 

Begins to pale her ineffectual Ray, 

The Moon, with blunted horns, now shines less bright, 

Her fading face eclips'd with growing light; 

The fleecy clouds with streaky lustre glow, 

And Day quits Heav'n to view the Earth below. 

O'er yon tall Pines, the Sun shows half his Face, 

And fires their floating Foliage with his Rays; 

Now sheds aslant on Earth his lightsome Beams, 

That trembling shine in many colour'd streams; 

Slow rising from the Marsh, the Mist recedes, 

The Trees, emerging, rear their dewy Heads; 

Their Dewy Heads, the Sun with pleasure views, 

And brightens into pearls the pendent Dews. 

The Beasts uprising quit their leafy Beds, 

And to the cheerful Sun erect their Heads. 



Through sylvan scenes my journey I pursue 

Ten thousand Beauties rising to my view; 

Which kindle in my breast poetic Flame, 

And bid me my Creator's praise proclaim. 

Here various Flourets grace the teeming Plains, 

Adorn'd by Nature's Hand with beauteous stains. 

First born of Spring here the Pacone appears, 

Whose golden Root a silver Blossom rears, 

In spreading Tufts see there the Crowfoot blue, 

On whose green leaves still shines the golden Dew 

Behold the Cinque-foil, with its dazzling Dye 

Of flaming yellow, wounds the tender eye; 

But there enclos'd the grassy wheat is seen 

To heal the aching sight with cheerful Green. 

In graceful rank there trees adorn the ground, 

The Peach, the Plum, the Apple here are found, 

Delicious fruits, which from their kernels rise, 

So fruitful is the soil — so mild the skies. 

The lowly Quince yon sloping Hill o'ershades, 

Here lofty Cherry trees erect their Heads, 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 43 

Evolving odours fill the ambient air, 
The Birds delighted to the Grove repair, 
On every Tree behold a tuneful Throng, 
The vocal Valleys echo to their Song. 



And now the Clouds in black assemblage rise, 
And dreary Darkness overspreads the Skies, 
Thro' which the Sun strives to transmit his Beams, 
But sheds his sickly Light in straggling Streams; 
Hushed is the Music of the woodland choir, 
Fore-knowing of the storm, the Birds retire 
For Shelter, and forsake the shrubby Plains, 
And a dumb Horror thro' the Forest reigns; 
In that lone House which opens wide its Door, 
Safe may I tarry till the Storm is o'er. 

— Gentleman's Magazine, March, 1732. 



MARYLAND THE REFLEX OF ENGLAND. 



i Maryland itself was the reflex of England; indeed, 
|so closely have the first settlers of this illustrious 
j commonwealth clung to the spirit and principles of 
their English forefathers that it has been confidently 
asserted that the people of St. Mary's County, the 
seat of the settlement of Lord Baltimore's first col- 
ony in Maryland, today, after the lapse of nearly 
I three -centuries, are more like the people of England 
at the date of the settlement of St. Mary's than are 
[the English people themselves. No branch of the 
'history of Maryland, more than the records of court, 
reflects so distinctly the life and character of the 
'people who settled "The Land of the Sanctuary.'' 
! Here are the motives that animated the fathers who 
' planted the cross on the shores of Maryland, and 
reclaimed the wilderness to civilization. Their cares, 



44 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

their pleasures, their aims, their possessions, their 
provisions for their families, their deeds of valor, their 
petty disputes, their great endeavors — all stand out 
in the records of the courts, as faithful indices of 
character and conditions ; for here tradition was sifted 
by the rules of critical proof and legal evidence, and 
the record was made by unprejudiced scribes, before 
a scrutinizing court, in the presence of adverse inter- 
ests, zealous and watchful to have the docket state 
the truth only. 

% — Elihu S. Riley. 



FAIR MARYLAND. 

Your loyalty and valor, 

An heritage for kings, 
Mother land, fair Maryland, 

A poet loves and sings. 

The grandest truths are simple, 
And in their grandest guise, 

Are only simple lessons 
Of wisdom to the wise. 

Soldiers of dear Maryland, 
In nature's bravest mould, 

You wear the fame of princes. 
Not bought with princes' gold. 

Vain pomp and gilded titles 
May win today's renown, 

Yet noble thoughts and actions, 
In weighing bear them down. 

Wives, mothers, and fair daughters, 
Good, beautiful, and true, 

The earth has yielded laurels. 
And roses unto you. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 45 



God send you grace and wisdom 

From His most regal throne, 
Whose "love is love forever" 

Whose peace is Peace alone. 

— Esmeralda Boyle ( ?] 



A LOFTY IDEAL. 



He (George Calvert) died probably thinking his 
whole life was a long failure, but a grateful posterity 
has rescued his name from oblivion, and has placed 
his monument in the niche allowed to the immortals. 
His motto, on his coat-of-arms, well expressed the 
tenor of his life: "Womanly words, manly deeds" — 
fatti maschii, parole femine. Jn all his correspondence 
there runs a broad vein of kindliness, sympathy, en- 
ergy and courage. Possessing a strong will and a 
sound judgment, he moved along quietly, doing his 
work thoroughly and conscientiously. His ambition 
was lofty, but it was legitimate ; it did not carry him 
into intemperate zeal or into corrupt practices. Judg- 
ing from the brief notice he has received from Eng- 
lish historians, he occupied, in their estimation, but 
an unimportant place in the historv of his times ; but 
in America he will be long remembered for the im- 
petus he gave to discoveries, to trade, and to the plant- 
ing of colonies, and in Maryland his name will be 
continually remembered in honor and devotion, not 
only as the founder of the State, but as the first one 
to introduce in the New World a palatinate form of 
government, and a palatinate so wisely planned as 
to secure to each individual the fullest tolerance in 
religion and the greatest freedom in political and civil 



46 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

life; a palatinate so constituted that the Catholic, the 
Protestant and the Quaker might each quietly enjoy 
his religion, and in the- enjoyment of his religion be 
protected, tolerated; and, as an Englishman, be al- 
lowed civil, political and social rights and privileges, 
without distinction of party, class or creed. In his 
lofty ideal the founder of Maryland contemplated 
neither a great empire swayed by one political ruler, 
nor a great hierarchy controlled by one spiritual head, 
but a state founded upon the principles of justice, 
equality and liberty — a state established and built upon 
the basis of civil and common law, but guided and con- 
trolled by those principles of ecclesiastical polity that 
would meet the universal acceptance of all its citizens. 

— Lewis H. Wilhelm. 



MY OWN NATIVE LAND. 

O, talk not to me of fair Italy's sky, 

Of the soft perfumed gales that through Araby sigh; 

I know there is not on this wide spreading earth 

A land bright and free, as this land of my birth; 

We have our mild zephyrs and bright, sunny beams, 

Our fruits and our flowers, fair valleys and streams; 

Thy rocks and thy mountains are lofty and grand, 

And brave are thy children, my own native land. 

If cowards and tyrants e'er seek to enchain. 

And bring to the dust our proud spirits again, 

Thy sons, still united, will rally for thee, 

And die, as they've lived, the exalted and free. 

O, had I the strength of my heart in my hand, 

I'd fight for thy freedom, my own native land; 

Amid thy oppressors undaunted I'd fly, 

And fling forth our banner in triumph on high. 

— Amelia B. Welby. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 47 

THE RISE OF ANNAPOLIS. 



William Claiborne, of Virginia, a foremost figure 
in the early history of the English settlements having 
their origin on the James and the Potomac, had estab- 
lished a trading post on Kent Isle, when the colonists 
of Lord Baltimore sailed into the estuary of the Poto- 
mac and founded Maryland at St. Mary's City. A 
merchant adventurer, with qualities of the explorer 
and ruler, Claiborne soon became involved in a con- 
troversy with Baltimore, and the latter's colonists 
broke up his barter with the Indians, and dispersed 
his men in the first naval battle in the New World. 
St. Mary's, at the extreme end of the Western Shore 
Peninsula, became the first Maryland county, Kent the 
second and Anne Arundel the third. The settlements 
in St. Mary's and Kent had several years' growth 
before a finer site than either was known to Balti- 
more's followers, one destined by natural advantages 
and location to become and remain the capital of the 
Province and the State. Fifteen years passed ere the 
original Maryland settlers knew the beauties of the 
Severn and of the adjacent territory, and it was left 
for a band of Puritans, fleeing from contumely and 
rising oppression in Virginia, to plant upon the shores 
of that river a colony which was speedily to gain 
power and influence in Maryland. In the very year 
the Assembly at St. Mary's passed the famous "Toler- 
ation Act," whereby freedom of Christian belief and 
practice was upheld, ten families of Puritans from 
Nansemond, Virginia, sailed up the Chesapeake and 
into the mouth of the Severn and established them- 
selves on Greenberry's Point, soon afterward locating 



48 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

on the peninsular site of Annapolis. Calling their 
settlement Providence, the next year, 1650, the Puri- 
tans sent delegates to the Assembly at St. Mary's, 
one of whom was made Speaker of the House of Bur- 
gesses. That session an Act passed "erecting Provi- 
dence into a county by the name of Annarundell 
County." With Edward Lloyd as commander and 
other officials, in 1650, Anne Arundel joined St. Mary's 
and Kent as a political division of the province. Imme- 
diately, it appears, antagonism which had before been 
manifest became acute, and on a question of con- 
science, touching the oath of allegiance to the Cath- 
olic Lord Baltimore, the Puritans refused to make the 
required acknowledgment, and to again send represent- 
atives to St. Mary's. The struggle between Puritan 
and Cavalier in England was to have its counterpart 
in Maryland, culminating in governmental changes 
and conflict, and in an armed meeting on the banks of 
the Severn. On Sunday, March 25, 1655, Lord Balti- 
more's governor, William Stone, with an army of 150 
men from St. Mary's, was defeated and taken prisoner 
by the Puritans on the east side of Spa Creek (Horn 
Point). His force was dispersed, several of the cap- 
tives executed and for a time the Puritans were in 
control of the colony. Three years later Lord Balti- 
more regained complete control of Maryland, the 
Cromwellian government was ousted, and Lord Bal- 
timore's authority was formally acknowledged by the 
people of Providence. As time went by, for reasons 
of religion and on account of its inconvenient location, 
opposition to St. Mary's gathered and finally, in 1694, 
the capital was removed to Anne Arundel Town and 
its name was changed to Annapolis. A few years later 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 49 

Annapolis is recorded as having about forty dwellings, 
a State House and a free school, built of brick, "which 
make a great show among a parcel of wooden houses, 
and the foundation of a church is laid, the only brick 
church in Maryland." 

After being dignified with a city charter, the growth 
of Annapolis as the political and social center of the 
province was rapid. It became the chief port of Mary- 
land. Tobacco, the staple crop of the province (and 
its currency) was exported in large quantities to Brit- 
ain, and enriched the planters, many of whom soon 
had "town houses" in Annapolis. The Legislature, 
the courts, the races, at certain seasons of the year, 
drew to the city wealthy and fashionable Maryland 
families, and the Virginia landholders on the southern 
banks of the Potomac. "The provincial State House 
became better known as a ball room than a hall of 
legislation. French hair-dressers, tailors and perfum- 
ers plied their trades in the city, and Annapolis soon 
came to merit the name" of the Athens of America. 
It then lay on the high-road from the Southern col- 
onies to New England, and travelers from abroad vis- 
ited it. Some of these have left on record piquant 
glimpses of the city. Long before the American Revo- 
lution it was conspicuous as the seat of wealth and 
fashion; the luxurious habits, the elegant accomplish- 
ments and profuse hospitality of its inhabitants were 
proverbially known throughout the colony. 



50 MARYLAND IN PROSE AKD POETRY. 

THE RIVERS OF MARYLAND. 

How beautiful beneath the sun 

The dazzling streams of Maryland run! 

Their leaping waters laugh and shine 

Where live the chestnut and the vine — 

Where bloom the daisies pure and white 

And mountains seek the stars of night. 

Their tuneful names but lend them --ace 

As to the sea their course they trace. 

Potomac, lordliest of all. 

Slips singing by the mountain's wall; 

Patapsco glides thro' glen and glade, 

In haunts of sun and haunts of shade; 

And where our heroes found release 

From war Antietam sings of peace. 

Close to the edge of Frederick Town 

Monocacy goes tumbling down; 

What name so tuneful in its flow 

As that of the Wicomico? 

And where Patuxent spreads her tides 

Transcendent beauty e'er abides; 

The Susquehanna from the North 

In Chesapeake Bay her wealth pours forth, 

The Bush and Severn ripple down 

Past whirring mill and busy town, 

Chanting the song of Maryland's worth, 

The fairest state that blesses earth. 

x he Pocomoke and Manokin 

Sunshine and shadow quiver in; 

The Choptank gambols on its way, 

Nor stops to rest by night or day, 

And 'neath the softest summer sky 

Doth flow the Chester and the Wye. 

The Nanticoke is full of glee 

And, with St. Michael's, seeks the sea, 

While on the Eastern Shore serene 

The Sassafras and Elk are seen; 

The Miles, the West, the South, in plav 

Their waters lose in Chesapeake Bay: 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 51 

The old Gunpowder slips along, 
The Conococheague yet sings its song 
To greet last Potomac's wave, 
The river of the fair and brave; 
But fair as any in its flow — 
Now rapid, now a little slow — 
Catoctin winds thro' field and wood 
With music in its crystal flood. 

These are the streams whose waters run 
Thro' Maryland's shade and Maryland's sun, 
Like jewels aglint in morning's light, 
And 'neath the golden stars of night; 
Forever may they carry down 
The hum of city, field and town, 
Forever may they chant their lays, 
These fair and hist'ric waterways; 
May flowers bloom and orchards grow 
Where tunefully they gently flow, 
To feed the mills on every hand 
And bless the State of Maryland. 

— T. G. Harbaugh. 



SIR ROBERT EDEN, OF MARYLAND, BART. 



On the evening of June 22, 1776, His Majesty's ship 
Fowey, Captain George Montague, arrived at Annapo- 
I lis to carry away the last Proprietary Governor of 
| Maryland. The Governor still appeared "easy and 
collected," and was "treated with every exterior mark 
! of attention." On the 23d Montague notified Eden 
] that he had arrived with a flag of truce and was ready 
to take him off. Eden at once boarded the ship. The 
Council of Safety, rejecting the advice of the more 
headstrong patriots to detain Eden, took an affec- 
tionate leave of him, after which he was conducted 



52 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

to the barge with every mark of respect .... He 
was compelled to learn that Maryland had declared 
herself independent while he was still on Lord Dun- 
more's fleet. He was still in the Chesapeake as late 
as the end of July, nor do we know when he sailed 
thence. His last act of which we have record, before 
leaving America, was to use his influence to secure 
permission for one Daniel Wolstenholme, a non-asso- 
ciator, to go back to England. It was a characteristic 
kindly act of a kindly man. With it he vanishes out 
of our sight. Where he was or what he did in the * 
next seven years is almost absolutely unknown. We 
catch one glimpse of him in a letter written by him 
to Walter Dulany, a fellow-exile from Maryland, from 
Bangor Place, on August 15, 1777. He tells Dulany 
that he expects to leave that place soon "on the Ram- 
ble for a fortnight, and then to Durham, and then to 
arrive in London again in the beginning of October." 
Whether he stayed in England and watched the prog- 
ress of the war from afar, or came back in the com- 
pany of his brother, Sir William Eden, later Lord 
Auckland, one of the commissioners of peace, I have 
been unable to discover. 

Eden was esteemed in the province he governed 
because of his rare tact and ability. He continued 
to receive the same high esteem in England and soon 
found honors at home. Scarcely had he arrived in 
England when, on September 7, Lord George Ger- 
main informed him of "the King's entire approba- 
tion" of his conduct in his governorship and of his 
supporting his authority "under difficulties which were 
thought here to be insurmountable," as well as for 
"the judicious manner" in which Eden left his prov- 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 53 

ince when his "staying there was no longer practica- 
ble." In addition to this formal approbation, as a 
reward for such faithful service, King George III cre- 
ated Robert Eden of Maryland a baronet. Eden at 
once replied to this letter, gratefully accepting the 
proffered honor and professing that "this favor can 
only add gratitude to zeal in my future endeavors to 
promote His Majesty's service, to the utmost of my 
abilities, on every occasion wherein His Majesty may 
think proper to employ me." From September 10, 
the official date of the creation, he and his heirs male 
were to bear the dignity of baronets. 

Though we do not hear of Eden's activity during 
the next seven years, no sooner was the treaty of 
peace declared than he returned to Maryland in the 
endeavor to regain some of the property he left here. 
The last known act of Eden was the one which ex- 
posed him to some criticism, though probably without 
good cause. Certain incomplete patents for land were 
among the papers he left behind when he went to 
England in 1776. On his return the persons to whom 
they should have been issued asked for these patents 
to assure them in their title to their lands. He then 
filled out the documents by signing and sealing them. 
Some fifty or sixty such patents were presented to 
the Land Office for registry in January, 1784. The 
number of them excited inquiry, and, on examination, 
the ink was seen to be too fresh to have been put 
on the paper eight years before. It was claimed that 
Eden had a mistaken notion of his power or author- 
ity as Governor still subsisting. Some excitement was 
aroused and Eden was formally asked concerning the 
matter. He acknowledged the facts without hesita- 



54 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

tion, denied that he claimed any authority, and said 
he was but paying a debt he owed when Governor, 
and the persons who received the patents conceived 
themselves entitled to have them, having acted on the 
supposition that he had signed them when Governor. 
This explanation seems to have been satisfactory, as 
we hear no more of the matter. 

While in Maryland he sickened and died of a dropsy 
following upon a fever, on September 2, 1784, in the 
house now owned and occupied by the Sisters of Notre 
Dame, in Shipwright street, Annapolis. He was only 
forty-three years of age. He was buried in St. Mar- 
garet's Church, on the Severn. The church long since 
was burned, and in the cemetery there, in an un- 
known grave, lies that true gentleman, the last Pro- 
vincial Governor of Maryland. 

— Bernard C. Steiner. 



DANIEL DULANY. 



For many years, before the downfall of the Pro- 
prietary Government, he stood confessedly without 
a rival in this colony as a lawyer, and a scholar, and 
an orator; and we may safely regard the assertion 
that, in the high and varied accomplishments which 
constitute them, he had among these sons of Mary- 
land but one equal and no superior. We admit that 
tradition is a magnifier, yet with regard to Mr. Du- 
lany there is no room for illusion. "You may tell 
Hercules by his foot," says the proverb, and this truth 
is as just when applied to the proportions of the name 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 55 

as those of the body. The legal arguments and opin- 
ions of Mr. Dulany that yet remain to us bear the 
impress of ability too commanding and of learning 
too profound to admit of question. Had we but these 
fragments, like the remainders of splendor which linger 
around some of the ruins of antiquity, they would be 
enough for admiration, and then fall very short of 
furnishing just conceptions of the character and ac- 
complishments of his mind. We have attestations of 
these in the testimonies of contemporaries. For many 
years before the Revolution he was regarded as an 
oracle of the law. It was the constant practice of the 
courts of the Province to submit to his opinion every 
question of difficulty which came before them, and 
so infallible were his opinions considered that he who 
hoped to reverse them was regarded as "hoping against 
hope." Nor was his professional reputation limited 
to the colony. I have been credibly informed that he 
was occasionally consulted from England upon ques- 
tions of magnitude, and that in the counties of Vir- 
ginia adjacent to Maryland it was not infrequent to 
withdraw questions from their courts, and even from 
the Chancellor of England, to submit them to him 
afterwards. Thus, unrivaled in professional learning, 
according to the assertions of his contemporaries, he 
added to it all the power of an orator, the accomplish- 
ments of a scholar, graces of the person, the suavity 
of the gentleman. Mr. Pinkney himself, the wonder 
of his age, who saw but the setting splendor of Mr. 
Dulany's talents, is reported to have said of him that 
even amongst such men as Fox, Pitt and Sheridan, he 
had not found his superior. 

— John Van Lear McMahon. 



56 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

SIR JOHN ST. CLAIR. 

His name is lost save in a brook of water 

That darkly plunges down a forest glen, 
Like that lean army pioneered to slaughter, 

Through lonely glades to horrible Duquesne; 
But in the road he hewed across the mountains, 

Where Braddock sleeps between his wagon wheels, 
A living brook goes on from Eastern fountains, 

No wars arrest, no killing frost congeals. 

His was the skiff that hardily descended 

The wild Potomac to the roaring falls; 
His were the floats the soldiery befriended 

To pass the torrent, under mountain walls; 
His were the bridges over the Opequan 

And the Antietam in the morn of time, 
Crossed by a multitude no man can reckon, 

To sceneries and destinies sublime. 

Behind his axes formed the van of movement, 

His picks and shovels were the conquering swords, 
And in the rift of Light he ope'd, Improvement 

Went single file through hidden savage hordes 
Until the pack mules with their bells were merry, 

Where rolling drums in vain inspired the fight 
And sheep and shepherds tarried by the ferry 

That drowned a host amidst the battle's fright. 

High mettled Scot! thine is no glory hollow! 

Shall we forget thee in our Westward Ho? 
When thy canoe the laden barges follow, 

And up thy path the steaming engines blow? 
No; while the sky the Alleghany arches, 

The good road builder's name shall be revealed; 
Sir John St. Clair's victorious army marches 

Above the army lost on Braddock's field. 

— George Alfred Townsend. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 57 
FORT CUMBERLAND. 



In the campaign of 1755, generally known as "Brad- 
dock's Expedition," Fort Cumberland was the most 
prominent point occupied on the line of march, and 
was the scene of important military preparations. It 
had been chosen as the rallying point for all the troops 
in the operations against the French on the Ohio 
River, its location being naturally advantageous for 
this purpose, although as a post for the frontier set- 
tlers farther east it was practically of little value. 
Situated, as it was, upon the very outskirts of civiliza- 
tion, surrounded by only a few hardy pioneers and 
trappers, it was a favorite place of resort for those 
friendly Indians who had pejtries to barter for the 
baubles, clothes, ammunition, etc., which they found 
at the new Ohio Company's storehouse, and was at 
the same time well adapted as a place of rendezvous 
for such forces as might be designed for operations 
farther west. It was located in the very heart of the 
wilderness, with virgin forests all about it, and roads 
of the most inferior character reaching back to the 
settlements, nearly eighty miles away, while the single 
road leading to the West was scarcely worthy of being 
called such. In the organization of Braddock's forces, 
the supplying of his men and animals, and the events 
that followed until the close of the contest with the 
French, the scenes and incidents that transpired here 
rendered historic every foot of ground about the place, 
and invested it with interest which should lead to their 
careful preservation for the information and pleasure 
of future generations. Here the Father of our Coun- 
try, the great Washington, obtained his earliest lessons 



58 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

in the art of war, and for the first time beheld a body 
of regular troops systematically encamped ; here he 
spent many weeks in the education of the camp and the 
drill, and familiarized himself with those duties which 
were to become so prominent a part of his future life, 
in the struggle his country was destined to embark 
in, to preserve its freedom and integrity. 

— William H. Lowdermilk. 



NED BRADDOCK. 

(July 9, 1755.) 
Said the Sword to the Ax, 'twixt the whacks and the hacks, 
"Who's your bold Berserker, cleaving of tracks? 
Hewing a highway through greenwood and glen, 
Foot-free for cattle and heart-free for men?" 
"Braddock of Fontenoy, stubborn and grim, 
Carving a cross on the wilderness rim; 
In his own doom building large for the Lord, 
Steeple and State!" said the Ax to the Sword. 

Said the Blade to the Ax, "And shall none say him Nay? 
Never a broadsword to bar him the way? 
Never a bush where a Huron may hide, 
Or the shot of a Shawnee spit red on his side?" 
Down the long trail from the Fort to the ford, 
Naked and streaked, plunge a moccasin'd horde; 
Huron and Wyandot, hot for the bout; 
Shawnee and Ottawa, barring him out! 

Red'ning the ridge, 'twixt a gorge and a gorge, 

Bold to the sky, loom the ranks of St. George; 

Braddock of Fontenoy, belted and horsed, 

For a foe to be struck, and a pass to be forced. 

'Twixt the pit and the crest, 'twixt the rocks and the grass, 

Where the bush hides the foe, and the foe holds the pass, 

Beaujeu and Pontiac, striving amain; 

Huron and Wyandot, jeering the slain! 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 59 



Beaujeu, bon camarade! Beaujeu the Gay! 

Beaujeu and Death cast their blades in the fray. 

Never a rifle that spared when it spoke, 

Never a scalp-knife that balked in its stroke, 

Till the red hillocks marked where the standards had 

danced, 
And the Grenadiers gasped where their sabres had glanced. 
But Braddock raged fierce in that storm by the ford, 
And railed at his "curs" with the flat of his sword! 

Said the Sword to the Ax, "Where's your Berserker now? 
Lo! his bones mark a path for a countryman's cow, 
And Beaujeu the Gay? Give him place, right or wrong, 
In your tale of a camp or your stave of a song." 
"But Braddock of Fontenoy, stubborn and grim, 
Who but he carved a cross on the wilderness rim? 
In his own doom building large for the Lord, 
Steeple and State," said the Ax to the Sword. 

—-John Williamson Palmer. 



THE RISE OF WESTERN MARYLAND. 



The western frontier of Maryland advanced but lit- 
tle beyond the head of the tidewater until the sturdy 
German settlers, coming down through the valleys 
of the Blue Ridge, settled the fertile valleys of Fred- 
erick and Washington. With their arrival, about the 
year 1735, a new and most important era opened in 
Maryland's history. Previously there had been no 
doubt concerning her alliance with the South in her 
economic, social and political life. This new and 
alien influence tended to join the province closer to 
Pennsylvania, and, as Western Maryland became more 
and more populous, and as the city of Baltimore grew 
in commercial importance, largely through the influ- 
ence of the same German settlers, there came to be 



60 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

a doubt in the minds of geographers whether Mary- 
land should be called a Middle or a Southern State. 
The life on the Western Maryland farms was far dif- 
ferent from that on the plantations of the Chesapeake 
Bay, and the people of the latter had many economic, 
commercial and social ties with England, of which the 
Westerners knew nothing. After landing at Phila- 
delphia the Germans passed down the fertile lands of 
Lancaster and York counties and settled all along 
the valleys as far as northern Georgia. So many of 
them came that in 1748 Western Maryland could be 
made a county under the name of Frederick. In this 
county was contained, down to the Revolution, all 
Maryland west of Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Prince 
George's counties. The county was not entirely in- 
habited by Germans. Scotch-Irish had also gathered 
there. Scions of some of the prominent Maryland fam- 
ilies had followed Berkeley's star of empire to carve out 
new fortunes for themselves. Quakers of steady habits 
were dwelling in the eastern part of the region. But 
outside of the lower section, what is now Montgomery 
county, Frederick county in 1770 was predominantly 
German . . . 

With a strong desire for freedom and with no social 
connection with Great Britain, they eagerly sprang 
forward at the call to resist the British commands. 
Few of them were Tories, and in all Western Mary- 
land we find comparatively few who refused to sign 
the Association of the Freemen of Maryland and en- 
roll themselves in the militia companies, unless they 
were Quakers, Mennonites or Dunkards, and so had 
religious scruples . . . The quiet mountain town 
(Frederick) and the rich country around it; the west- 






MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 61 

em settlements in the Alleghenies ; the more level 
plains of Montgomery, saw no more of martial array 
or heard any more rumors of war for nearly eighty 
years. They had done nobly in their country's cause ; 
they had been steadfast in the struggle for independ- 
ence ; they had believed in the triumph of the ne\\ 
nation, and they had their reward. In considering 
the history of a war we often think exclusively of the 
armies in the field and forget the people from whom 
the army was recruited, and by whose support it was 
maintained. But in whatever line of patriotic service 
we test the conduct of Western Maryland during the 
Revolution, the whole country has reason to be grate- 
ful for vigilant performance of duty. 

, — Bernard C. Steiner. 



THE GLADES OF GARRETT. 

1 The Highlands for their heather and Killarney for its braes — 
For me the glades of Garrett when the golden buckwheat 

sways, 
When songbirds fill the forests and the sheep upon the hills 
Go with little bells that tinkle to the tinkling of the rills; 
The golden glades of Garrett, where the hours are veiled in 

gleam 

And the footsteps of the spirit walk in cloisters of the 

dream! 
I I've climbed the lovely summits, I have seen the blue mist 

lay 
j In the green lap of the mountains through the golden summer 

day; 
i I have seen it lift and lighten, I have seen it float and swing, 
Like a veil that moves to dancing of the lithe, frail form of 

spring; 
\ I've gazed down, wild with wonder, o'er the green glades 

iat my feet, 
Oh, the golden glades of Garrett, with the sheep bells tinkling 
sweet! 

i 

J 



62 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



Buckwheat pastures, where the pirates of the blue, bee-litten 
main 

Seek the cargoes of the blossoms in the sunny pollen rain; 
Lordly plateaus, vast expanses, mountains grandly, greenly 
fair, 

And the tonic and the balsam of the fragrant forest air — 
Yes, the golden glades of Garrett are the Highlands' counter- 
part, 
Only sweeter, only bluer in the warm love of our heart! 

Lowing cattle, fairy meadows, fishing cascades, lost and 

found 
In the shadow and the silence, in the tinkle and the sound; 
White clouds stooping to the hilltops, pineclad peaks above 

the snow; 
All the rapture, all the wonder, all the charm of it I know — 
Know those golden glades of Garrett, where bright shuttles, 

ray by ray, 
Weave the web of wonder-beauty where the green groves 

stretch away! 

The Highlands for their heather and Killarney for its braes — 
For me the glades of Garrett, where the golden buckwheat 

sways; 
Where the rovers in the clover on their honeyed wings go by 
And you step right off the verges of the green hills to the 

sky; 
The golden glades of Garrett — in my heart of hearts they 

gleam, 
And I hear the sheep bells tinkling to the tinkling of the 

stream! 

— Folger HcKinsey. 



THE TEA TAX. 



In the meantime, the clouds fast gathering on both 
sides of the Atlantic grew blacker and blacker still. 
I saw a great change in Annapolis. Men of affairs 
went about with grave faces, while gay and sober alike 
were touched by the spell. The Tory gentry, to be 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 63 

sure, rattled about in their gilded mahogany coaches, 
in spite of jeers and sour looks. . . . Yes, that was the 
winter when the wise foresaw the inevitable, and the 
first sharp split occurred between men who had been 
brothers. The old order of things had plainly passed. 
The greater part of our gentry stood firm for America's 
rights, and they had behind them the best lawyers in 
America. After the lawyers came the small planters 
and most of the mechanics. The shopkeepers formed 
the backbone of King George's adherents; the Tory 
gentry, the clergy, and those holding office under the 
Proprietor made the rest. And it was all about tea, a 
word which since '67, had been steadily becoming the 
most vexed in the language. The East India Company 
had put forth a complaint. They, had Heaven knows 
ihow many tons getting stale in London warehouses, 
I all by reason of our stubbornness, and so it was en- 
acted that all tea paying the small American tax should 
have a rebate of the English duties. That was truly a 
master-stroke, for Parliament to give it to us cheaper 
! than it could be had at home ! To cause His Majesty's 
government to lose revenues for the sake of being able 
to say they had caught and taxed us at last ! 

— Winston Churchill. 



DEATH OR LIBERTY. 

In seventeen hundred and seventy-four 

The Peggy Stewart came 
With a cargo of tea from over the sea, 

And a tax in King George's name. 
But the Maryland men had sternly said, 

"We'll pay no tax, indeed, 
On silk or brocade, or anything made, 

So let King George take heed." 



64 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



The farmers rode down in the light of day 

To the town by the Severn's side, 
And they summoned the knave, who had tried to brave 

The people's decree and hide, 
To come forthwith to Wind Mill Point, 

To come with his torch alight, 
To confess the blame, and to burn the shame 

Of his deed, in all men's sight. 
So the Peggy was burned to the water's edge. 

Ah, that was a sight to see! 

And the sturdy men rode home again, 

Singing, "Death or Liberty." 

— L. Magruder Passano. 



BURNING OF THE "PEGGY STEWART.' 



Dr. Charles Alexander Warfield, of Anne Arundel 
county, who had a short time before obtained profes- 
sional honors in the University of Pennsylvania, and 
had been appointed major of battalion in the Mary- 
land militia, upon hearing of the arrival of the brig 
"Peggy Stewart" at Annapolis, loaded with tea, and 
which vessel belonged to Mr. Anthony Stewart, a 
Scotch merchant, put himself at the head of the Whig 
Club and marched to Annapolis with a determination 
to burn vessel and cargo. 

When this party arrived opposite the State House 
Judge Chase met them and harangued them — he had 
been employed as a lawyer by Mr. Stewart. Dr. War- 
field, finding that he was likely to make some impres- 
sion upon the minds of his company, interrupted him 
by observing that Chase had by former patriotic 
speeches made to the Whig Club inflamed the whole 
country, and called upon the men to follow him and 
he would himself set fire to the vessel and cargo; but 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 65 

it is stated upon the best authority that the Doctor 
carried in his hand the chunk of fire in company with 
Stewart, whom he made to kindle it. When the party 
first entered the city and were passing on they met 
Stewart, who was bold in opposition and threatened 
them with the vengeance of the King and his govern- 
ment, but his threats seemed only to increase their 
determination. They erected a gallows immediately 
in front of his house by way of intimidation, then 
gave him his choice either to swing by the halter 
or go with them on board and put fire to his own 
vessel. He chose the latter, and in a few moments the 
whole cargo, with the ship's tackle and apparel, were 
in flames. Shortly after this Mr. Stewart left the 
country. This act decided the course Maryland was 
to pursue and had an extensive influence upon public 
opinion. The writer of this was in company with 
Judge Chase and Dr. Warfield a few years before 
their death and heard them conversing upon the sub- 
ject, when Mr. Chase remarked in a jocular manner: 
"If we had not succeeded, Doctor, in the Revolution- 
ary contest, both of us would have been hung — you 
for burning the ship of tea, and I for declaring I 
owed no allegiance to the King and signing the Dec- 
laration of Independence." 

Dr. Warfield, but a short time before he marched 
to the city of Annapolis to fire the tea, was parading 
his battalion in Anne Arundel county, in the vicinity 
of Mr. Carroll's residence, when he took upon him- 
self the privilege of printing some labels with the 
following inscription: "Liberty and Independence, or 
death in pursuit of it," and placed one on the hat of 
each man in his company. Many of the older neigh- 



66 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

bors who were present were struck with astonishment, 
and endeavored to persuade him to have them taken 
down, for the idea of independence at that time had 
entered the minds of but few men. 

The venerable Mr. Carroll the elder rode up to the 
father of Dr. Charles Alexander Warfield and ex- 
claimed : "My God, Mr. Warfield, what does your 
son Charles mean? Does he know that he has com- 
mitted treason against his King and may be prose- 
cuted for a rebel?" 

The father replied, with much animation and patriot- 
ism : "We acknowledge no King; the King is a 
traitor to us, and a period has arrived when we must 
either tamely submit to be slaves or struggle glori- 
ously for 'liberty and independence.' The King has 
become our enemy and we must be his. My son 
Charles knows what he is about. 'Liberty and Inde- 
pendence — or death in pursuit of it' is his motto, it is 
mine, and soon must be the sentiment of every man 
in this country." 

— Baltimore Patriot (1813). 



OUR MARYLAND STATE IS BEAUTIFUL. 

Our Maryland State is beautiful, 

Right beautiful, I ween; 
Her mountain tops are tipped with gold, 

Her valleys tinged with green; 
Her sparkling streams, and rills that sport, 

In sunshine and in shade, 
Her verdant hills, green-carpeted, 

Where oft in youth I've played. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 67 

Her blooming flowers are beautiful, 

That open to the day, 
And spread their perfume far and wide, 

Along the sunny way. 
Her vine clad hills, and sandy dells, 

That bask in beauty's sheen; 
Oh! Maryland State is beautiful 

Wherever she is seen. 
Our Maryland State was beautiful 

When valiant men and true, 
Spread their white sails and sought a home 

Beyond the waters blue. 
They found it 'neath the forest old, 

'Mid wild and savage men, 
Beside the ocean's sandy shore, 

Within the mountain glen. 
Our Maryland State was beautiful, 

When vessels, Ark and Dove, 
Sailed o'er the broad Atlantic Main, 

With true hearts filled with love. 
Through storm and tempest, sleet and rain, 

They sailed across the sea, 
Men of religious liberty, 

Types of the brave and free. 
Our Maryland State was beautiful 

When men were not afraid 
To fight the hateful "Stamp Act" Law 

The King of England made; 
When Major Warfield and his men, 

Devoted, valiant, free, 
Burned vessel Pegg} r Stewart, laden 

With the obnoxious tea. 
Down through Annapolis they rode, 

No semblance of disguise; 
Arrayed in no fantastic garb, 

No mask concealed their eyes. 
Their only Shibboleth that day 

Was "Liberty or Death;" 
Resolved that this their motto be 

E'en to their latest breath, 



68 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

Our Maryland State was beautiful 

When Freedom first awoke 
Its stirring notes of bugle call 

To break old England's yoke. 
Full armed, like Pallas, Maryland stood 

Amid the deadly fight, 
And man by man stood boldly up 

And clinched their hands of might. 
The struggle came, no cheek turned pale, 

No heart unnerved with fear; 
They grasped their swords more tightly then — 

'Twas victory or a bier. 
Long was the struggle, hard the fight, 

But Liberty was won; 
Oh! was not Maryland beautiful 

Beneath Fair Freedom's sun? 

— John Philemon Smith 



MARYLAND IN THE REVOLUTION. 

The story of the Maryland Continental troops is the 
story of the Revolution. From the day that Thomas 
Johnson, in the Congress, nominated George Wash- 
ington, his friend and fellow-patriot, to the command- 
in-chief of the American forces, until John Hanson pre- 
sided over that body; from the appearance before 
leaguered Boston of the hunting shirts of Cresap's 
Western Maryland riflemen, first of Southern troops to 
arrive, until Tench Tilghman rode into Philadelphia 
with the news from Yorktown that Cornwallis had 
been taken, the statesmen of Maryland were conspicu- 
ous in the Congress, and the valor of Maryland had 
been proved on nearly every battlefield. Gist's ''Four 
Hundred," sacrificed at Long Island to cover the re- 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 69 

treat of the army; Richardson's and Griffith's repulse 
of the British at Harlem Heights ; Rawlings' defense of 
Fort Washington and Smith's defense of Fort Mifflin; 
Ramsay's gallantry at Monmouth under the eye of 
Washington, whose immortal oath was resounding in 
'the ears of Lee ; Stewart in the attack on Stony Point ; 
Bentalou in the streets of Savannah ; Ford's fall at 
Hobkirk's Hill ; Oldham in the assault on Augusta, and 
Benson in that at Ninety-Six — these are varying but 
alike instructive lessons of the deeds of the Maryland 
troops. Then there is the heroic figure of Howard, 
who made them the "Bayonets of the Revolution," and 
led them to the charge at Germantown, Camden, the 
Cowpens, Guilford Court House and Eutaw Springs ; 
Smallwood, who fought where the battle was thickest 
as the ranking officer of the Line, and Williams, able 
in strategy as brave in action. Wilkinson brought to 
Congress the news of Burgoyne's surrender. John- 
son, in the darkest days of the war, cheered the heart 
of Washington with ready response in person to calls 
for men and supplies ; Chase, Paca, Stone and Carroll 
signed the Declaration of Independence, and the states- 
men at home supplemented in council the work of the 
twenty thousand soldiers whom Maryland sent to fight 
in other States and die on other soil. 

Nor is the good work of the State in the winning of 
independence her only share, great as that is, in the 
making of the nation. Not until the war had nearly 
closed were her Delegates empowered to subscribe to 
the Articles of Confederation, the delay in doing which, 
on account of the claims to the western lands, is a 
phase of her history and of that of the country with 
which an intimate acquaintance should be had. The 



70 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

Maryland- Virginia Compact of 1785, in its aspect as a 
treaty between two sovereign States, and in its effect as 
hastening the abandonment of the "rope of sand" for 
the "more perfect union" of the Constitution, is con- 
spicuous among the events which fixed the form of 
American government. 



MARYLAND REVOLUTIONARY MONUMENT. 

Dedicated October 19, 1901. 

Why do the sons of long-departed sires 

With reverent hands this votive column rear? 

Is there mistrust that our memorial fires 
May burn with lessening glow from year to year? 

Do these compatriots of the famous Line 

Need pillared shaft to immortalize their names? 

Do deeds like theirs need added seal or sign? 
Are they not Freedom's cherished sons, and Fame's? 

Can we exalt in statelier degree, 
As their renown we thus commemorate, 

Men who transformed a parent colony 
A sceptred province, to a sovereign State? 

Can that bronze statue to the world repeat 
With more impressive voice the story told 

How they on bloody fields braved iron sleet, 
Cast, as they were, in true heroic mould? 

Can we forget who covered the retreat 

And laid their offerings at Long Island's shrine? 

Can we dismiss, while memory holds its seat, 
Monmouth and Germantown and Brandy wine? 

Do tablets tint with brighter colorings 

The spirit, in the struggle to be free, 
Displayed at Camden, Cowpens, Eutaw Springs, 

Or in the flush of Yorktown's victory? 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 71 

Did not the great Commander often cheer 
The sons of Maryland with heartiest praise? 

Did not DeKalb, Pulaski, Greene, endear 

Their names for crowning valor with its bays? 

Surely they need not monumental pile 

Who fought, bled, died for justice and for right; 
Their names are graved with history's pointed style 
In fadeless characters of living light. 

But leal descendants, mindful of their debt, 
Thus in the whirl and stress of modern life, 

Speak to their countrymen, lest they forget 

The why and wherefore of the eight years' strife. 

Lest they forget, this shaft will tell with pride 

How patriot sires the clarion call obeyed, 
And life and fortune — all that these^ implied — 

Upon the altar of their country laid. 

'Twill show the grandeur of their sacrifice, 

1'heir stake for glory or a soldier's grave; 
Show that, whate'er the throw of fateful dice, 

All that was theirs to give, they freely gave. 

The claim of right divine to govern wrong 
They left to sycophants who kissed the rod; 

Theirs was the maxim that "resistance strong 
To tyrants is obedience to God." 

Their sons, since then, on many a hard-fought field 
True to the lessons taught, the example set, 
'Gainst shot and shell their breasts as firmly steeled, 
'Gainst sabre thrust or charge of bayonet. 

But let them, large the measure though they fill, 
With grand achievements both on land and sea, 

Not screen from view the unconquerable will 
That sealed with blood our priceless liberty. 

— Charles Carroll Bombaugh. 



72 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

MONUMENT TO GENERAL SMALLWOOD. 



General William Smallwood was the foremost mili- 
tary man of the Maryland Line. He threw his in- 
fluence and fortune in a cause which made him a hero 
in the eyes of his fellow-men — a cause which became 
so vital in its important relation to every one in the 
colonies that upon its success they staked their lives, 
knowing well the responsibilities of their acts, and 
believing that they were fighting for that which would 
in time affect the future of the entire human race. 
Little did they dream that they lived in the most he- 
roic age of man, and the most momentous period of 
American history, or" that the tread of their soldiers 
and the voices of their statesmen would echo along 
the highway of Angle-Saxon civilization ; for these 
men, although unconscious of it, had worked out the 
problem which no other age had accomplished. 

William Smallwood was commissioned colonel of 
a Maryland regiment in 1776, brigadier-general in 1777, 
major-general in 1780 and was elected Governor of 
Maryland in 1785. History tells us that he was brave, 
generous and courteous ; so good a citizen was he, so 
well were his excellent qualities known to his fellow- 
citizens, that for years he represented them in many 
movements for which the people of Maryland were 
noted. At an early age he was sent to England to be 
educated and in 1754, then about twenty-one years of 
age, he returned to America. An historical and official 
record reads that William Smallwood was a gallant and 
fearless soldier in the Revolutionary Army of the Mary- 
land Line, commanding the Maryland forces, and came 
home after an eight years' struggle for American free- 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 73 

dom covered with glory ; was wounded at White 
Plains on October 14, 1778, and received by an act 
of Congress, October 14, 1780, a vote of thanks for 
bravery and good conduct at the battle of Camden, 
in South Carolina. Pie sheathed his sword only when 
the liberation of his fellow-citizens was assured. He 
had at all times the confidence of General Washing- 
ton. Tradition tells us that he was frequently the 
guest of the first President, and on several occasions 
had him as a guest in this historic house which stands 
before us, and on the 14th day of February, 1792, he 
passed away, about sixty years of age. 

This is but a brief sketch of the man whose grave 
we have marked today, who sleeps beneath this hill, 
almost overlooking the tomb of his beloved Washing- 
ton, and whose memory we desire to honor, and in 
this act of unselfish patriotism, in bringing this stone 
to this quiet spot, far from the view of the busy world, 
we have not only done what we believe to be our 
duty as an organized body of descendants of the Revo- 
lutionary Army, but a tribute as well to the statesmen 
who were the architects of our glorious government 
.... Memorials like these shall speak with a silent 
tongue to the millions of Americans yet unborn, and 
when our dear country shall become so great and pow- 
erful, as it will, that it will obliterate the world's past 
achievements, the statesmen of the day will turn to 
the pages of the history of the American Revolution 
for inspiration, and upon altars like these renew their 
allegiance to the structure which gave life to liberty 

and to them an untarnished flag. 

^-Albert Kimberly Hadel. 



74 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



THE MARYLAND LINE. 

They faltered not, although the tide 

Of battle rolled around them, 
Their comrades fell, their comrades died, 

The foe could not confound them; 
The day was lost, but still they stood 

Unwhipped, those fearless yeomen, 
And, sprinkled with their brothers' blood, 

Defied the English foemen. 

They did not leave the fatal field 

Till gallant Stirling bade them, 
They knew not what it was to yield — 

Heroic God had made them; 
The scarlet-coated warrior band 

In vain against them thundered 
And Washington and Maryland 

At their devotion wondered. 

Behind them lay their native hills 

In summer's garb of beauty, 
Behind them rippled Maryland's rills, 

To die for her was duty; 
And not a man that glorious day 

Amid the fire infernal, 
But stood a Spartan in the fray 

And glory gained eternal. 



Let Maryland treasure in her heart 

Her own immortal yeomen, 
Each gallant son performed his part 

And bravely met the foemen; 
Their bones are dust where once they stood 

In riven regimentals, 
And saved the army by their blood — 

Those grand old Continentals. 

They honored thee, O cherished State, 

For liberty they battled, 
Against them rolled the tide of fate, 

Around the cold lead rattled; 
A century hath crowned their band 

With deathless wreaths of glory, 
These are the heroes, Maryland, 

Who live fore'er in story. 

—T. G. Harbaugh, 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 75 

THE BATTLE HEROES OF MARYLAND. 



The despotism of Egypt touches the sands of the 
Nile and the Pyramids rise -in majestic grandeur to 
heaven, a hecatomb for mummies. The patriotism of 
Maryland slept a century among the blessings of free 
government before it thinks of recording the virtues 
of these authors of greatness. 

The genius of Thorwaldsen has been envoked and 
the Lion of Lucerne springs from the everlasting rock 
to commemorate forever the bravery and devotion to 
duty of the hireling Swiss guard of Louis XVI, but 
the grave of Michael Cresap, who, with Thomas Price, 
marched the first companies from the South to Boston 
in a war for independence, is unmarked and neglected, 
and his memory is fading into the echoless silence of 
the past. 

The fame of the military genius who waded through 
the blood of thousands to absolute power, and whose 
ambitions unsettled the political balance of the world, 
has been made imperishable by the Column Vendome 
and the Arch of Triumph, and his ashes lie enshrined 
in a princely tomb on the banks of the Seine; while 
the grave of Moses Rawlings, the patriot soldier, the 
hero of Fort Washington, lies hidden by the weeds 
on the banks of the Potomac, and the ashes of Gunby 
and Price, of Griffith and Ford, repose beneath no 
public emblem of man's remembrance. 

A marble column rises from the heart of Baltimore 
to greet the morning sun with continual tidings of 
the savior of his country, Virginia's immortal son, and 
yet the memories of Howard and of Williams and 



76 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

of Gist and of Richardson lie rapt in the silence of an 
hundred years in the bosom of the State they loved 
so well. 

The charge of the six hundred at Balaklava, in a 
war for conquest, has been renewed in song and story, 
with naught to commend its reckless bravery but 
obedience to military orders, while the six charges of 
the Maryland four hundred, under the intrepid Gist, 
against four thousand veteran British troops, under 
Lord Cornwallis, at the battle of Long Island, in a war 
for man's political redemption, has not inspired the 
poet until now, or raised a monument to their memory. 

Must we be reminded that the Frederick County 
Court of Maryland first had the courage, eleven years 
before the Declaration of Independence, to disregard 
the stamp act? That before a hostile foot had pressed 
her soil the sons of Maryland flew to arms at the 
trumpet call of New York's oppression — not to defend 
their own homes, not to protect their own families, 
but to assist a sister colony in maintaining with their 
blood the principles of free government? 

Must we again be told that the old Maryland Line 
under Griffith and Price was the first to drive the 
serried ranks of England from the Heights of Harlem 
at the point of the bayonet and that they bore the 
brunt of every fight thenceforth to Valley Forge? 

Must the generous haste with which her sons re- 
sponded to the call of the conquered Carolinas be 
recounted, and how from Camden to Eutaw Springs, 
through Guilford Court House, Hobkirk's Hill and 
Cowpens, with a determined courage born of patriotic 
conviction, with an impetuous valor inspired by its 
responsibility to the future of mankind, the Maryland 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 77 

Line, the Tenth Legion of Greene's army, the Old 
Guard of the Continental forces, dashed with Morgan 
through the veterans of the daring Tarleton and with 
Howard through the Irish Buffs of the gallant Web- 
ster and drove them at the point of the bayonet in 
panic from the field? 

To keep green the memories of the men who by 
such persistent courage planted the foremost mile- 
stone in the path of the progress of civilization and 
to perpetuate their fame to the most remote posterity 
is this monument erected. By it will every Maryland 
hero of the Revolution be remembered. However 
humble, however great, whether as a private in the 
blackness of the night on some distant picket line all 
alone he fell or in the mad crush of battle as the gen- 
eral at the head of his victorious army at the very 
pinnacle of fame he died, whether his grave be un- 
known and marked only by the modest daisy of the 
mountain or be the Mecca of a nation's gratitude and 
marked by some grand sarcophagus of the nation's 
woe, this worthy shaft will rise from Long Island's 
soil to attest Maryland's devotion to the principles 
for which they bled and to bespeak her tenacious af- 
fection for her unforgotten dead. 

Not because, like the cohorts of imperial Caesar, 
they fought to bring all nations at the feet of Rome ; 
not because, like the legions of the great Napoleon, 
they followed in blind idolatry the ambitious leader- 
ship of an invincible chief to win his approving smile 
and to wear the cross of the Legion of Honor; not 
because to gratify a nation's greed for territory they 
stood like England's perfect ranks, with unshaken dis- 
cipline to subjugate and acquire other lands; not be- 



78 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

cause they fought and died for plunder, conquest or 
the simple love of glory would we carve their names 
on endurable stone or emblazon their virtues upon 
everlasting brass, but because as the soldiers of this 
nation, the consummation and concentration of all the 
political wisdom of the ages, they fought to give it 
life, because as the champion of a newer and more 
enlightened progress they bled to render possible the 
fulfillment of the New World's destiny, because as 
the exponents of civil liberty they died to teach the 
great lesson of humanity to which the civilization of 
the centuries had been struggling that all men are 
and of right should be free and equal before the laws. 

To accomplish such results the bridegroom left the 
bride of an hour with a hurried embrace to join the 
Maryland Line. This is why the son, with all the 
ardent patriotism of youth, left with an affectionate 
farewell his aged parents and hurried to the front, 
never to return; this is why the Maryland mother, 
her patriotism and courage rising between her heart- 
wrung sighs and dread forebodings, buckled to the 
side of her first born the sword of his fathers, and, 
with the last lingering kiss of a mother's ineffable love 
upon his boyish brow, dedicated in life and in death, if 
need be, her only son to the cause of his country. 

It was not for plunder that Cresap, Price and Raw- 
lings marched from their quiet homes in Maryland 
through 600 miles of forest to join Northern brethren 
in the siege of Boston and the defense of Fort Wash- 
ington. 

It was not to gratify some towering political. ambi- 
tion that Howard and Williams, Griffith, Gist and 
Smallwood bled. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 79 

It was not for purposes so base as these that hun- 
dreds of Maryland's sons laid down their lives among 
the green hills of the North and the fair savannahs of 
the South — a willing sacrifice upon the altar of the 
country's liberty, and their martyr souls winged their 
flight to the battlements of Heaven. 

They bled that the world's progress in the humani- 
zation of man might not cease. They died to add 
another link in the chain of that divine plan, which, 
in the history of nations, can so plainly be seen work- 
ing out the higher civilization and the ultimate politi- 
cal redemption of mankind. This is the cause for 
which they fought. These are the results of their 
courage, their self-sacrifice and their unflinching 
patriotism. All honor, then, to the Maryland heroes 
of the war for man's freedom. They belong to no 
"age ; they fulfilled the promise of the past and inspired 
hope for the future. They belong to no nation ; they 
opened the way to political enfranchisement to all men. 

— George A. Pearre. 



THE MARYLAND DEAD. 

The daisy was red on that August da^\ 

The buttercup yellow was stained with blood; 

Their young lives went out in that dreadful fray, 
As fought by the side of tide a£ the flood. 

The daisy today is snowy white, 

The buttercup yellow is bright as ^old, 

But the song and story of that fearful fight 
For long, long ages will still be told; 

And not till our country has passed away 

Shall be forgotten that August day. 

— Frank Squier 



80 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

THE MARYLAND BATTALION. 

Spruce Macaronis, and pretty to see, 

Tidy and dapper and gallant were we; 

Blooded, fine gentlemen, proper and tall, 

Bold in a fox hunt and gay at a ball; 

Prancing soldados so martial and bluff, 

Billets for bullets, in scarlet and buff — 

But our cockades were clasped with a mother's low prayer, 

And the sweethearts that braided the sword-knots were fair. 

There was a grummer of drums humming hoarse in the hills, 

And the bugle sang fanfaron down by the mills; 

By Flatbush the bagpipes were droning amain, 

And keen cracked the rifles in Martense's lane; 

For the Hessians were flecking the hedges with red, 

And the grenadiers' tramp marked the roll of the dead. 

Three to one, flank and rear, flashed the files of St. George, 

The fierce gleam of their steel as the glow of a forge. 

The brutal boom-boom of their swart cannoneers 

Was sweet music compared with the taunt of their cheers — 

For the brunt of their onset, our crippled array, 

And the light of God's leading gone out in the fray! 

Oh, the rout on the left and the tug on the right! 

The mad plunge of the charge and the wreck of the flight! 

When the cohorts of Grant held stout Stirling at strain, 

And the mongrels of Hesse went tearing the slain; 

When at Freek's mill the fumes and the sluices ran red, 

And the dead choked the dike and the marsh choked the dead! 

"O Stirling, good Stirling! how long must we wait? 
Shall the shout of your trumpet unleash us too late? 
Have you never a dash for brave Mordecai Gist, 
With his heart in his throat and his blade in his fist? 
Are we good for no more than to prance in a ball, 
When the drums beat the charge and the clarions call?" 






MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 81 



Tralara! Tralara! Now praise we the Lord 

For the clang of His call and the flash of His sword; 

Tralara! Tralara! Now forward to die; 

For the banner, hurrah! and for sweethearts, good-by! 

"Four hundred wild lads!" Maybe so, I'll be bound 

'Twill be easy to count us, face up, on the ground. 

If we hold the road open, tho' death take the toll, 

We'll be missed on parade when the States call the roll — 

When the flags meet in peace and the guns are at rest, 

And fair Freedom is singing Sweet Home in the West. 

— John Williamson Palmer. 



GOVERNOR TOM JOHNSON. 



In a storied burial ground in. Frederick, "in his nar- 
row bed," sleeps one whose name never fails to stir 
the heart of the old Marylander with lively emotions 
of admiration and affection — Governor Tom Johnson, 
that audacious and stubborn patriot, of whom John 
Adams said that he was one of four citizens of Mary- 
land and Virginia "without whom there would have 
been no Revolution ;" although in affected scorn of 
him a British officer, writing to his people at home, 
had assured them "there is no need to be alarmed by 
all this noise in the Colonies, which is mainly made by 
a boy named Tom Johnson." 

"That pestilent Rebel" of the British War Office 
was the trusty, loving friend of Washington, whom 
he nominated to be commander-in-chief of all the 
armies of the United Colonies ; member of the first 
Congress, and of the convention which adopted the 
Constitution of the United States ; first Governor of 
Maryland, and an Associate Justice of the Supreme 
Court, and he was twice urged to accept the port- 



82 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

folio of Secretary of State. He was, in his day, the 
first citizen of Maryland, and in all the Colonies the 
Revolution disclosed no wiser, stronger, sweeter char- 
acter than his, who joined the fortitude of the war- 
rior with the foresight of the statesman in the tem- 
perament of an eager, dauntless boy. 

— John Williamson Palmer. 



ON FLAG DAY. 

Our flag today waves on the breeze 
Countless as boughs on the forest trees, 
O'er prairies rich with golden grain 
O'er stream and sail, o'er peaceful main, 
O'er cities fair with happy throng, 
O'er cannon with their thunder song, 
It waves on high o'er school and home, 
As proudly as o'er stately dome. 

Above its folds doth glory cling, 
Like blossoms on the breast of Spring, 
Its tints, born of the jeweled morn, 
When Day treads in the steps of Dawn, 
Were woven there by patriot hand, 
When cries for freedom rent the land, 
They bathed its stripes in blood and tears, 
And rose triumphant o'er their fears. 

See! all its stars are priceless gems, 
The brightest in Time's diadems, 
And as the fleeting years go by, 
It borrows others from the sky 
To set them in its field of blue — 
Blest union of the brave and true! 
And ne'er shall one bright star go down, 
While Valor doth brave Justice crown. 

— Edwin Eiggins. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 83 

TENCH TILGHMAN'S RIDE. 



Matthew Tilghman, the patriarch of the infant com- 
monwealth, with rare wisdom, fortitude and courage, 
guided the counsels of the State, while Colonel Tench 
Tilghman illustrated the chivalry which had defied 
the King's taxgatherers in the person of George Tal- 
bot and on every battlefield, from Long Island to 
Yorktown, proved his devotion to the liberties in- 
herited from a long line of illustrious ancestors. He 
was military secretary and aid to Washington, and 
on the surrender of Cornwallis, October 19, 1781, was 
selected by Washington to carry his official dispatch 
to the Congress at Philadelphia, announcing that glori- 
ous and all-important event. 

Taking boat in York river, he lost one night aground 
on Tangier shoals. On reaching Annapolis he found 
that a dispatch from the Count de Grasse, dated on 
the eighteenth, to Governor Thomas Sim Lee, had 
reached there a day ahead of him and been forwarded 
to Philadelphia. Without stopping he pushed on 
across the bay to Kent, having lost a whole day in a 
calm between Annapolis and Rock Hall. From there 
to Philadelphia is about eighty miles as the crow flies. 
De Grasse's courier had passed through the country 
a day ahead. The people were on tiptoe to hear the 
news from York. Their hearts stopped as they im- 
agined they heard the great guns of the English and 
the French booming over the waters in the still night. 
All looked with wistful eyes to the South for some 
sign of the issue of the weary struggle. 

It was the supreme effort of American liberty. It 
was the very crisis of freedom. But the flower of 



84 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

Maryland was in that fight, and the lower counties 
on the Delaware had sent their bravest and best to 
back their brethren of the Eastern Shore. One of the 
miracles of history, attested time and again by indis- 
putable evidence, is that when the minds of a whole 
people are at white heat of excitement and expecta- 
tion, knowledge comes to them independent of the 
senses. The Greeks believed that the great god, Pan, 
spread the knowledge of victory or defeat in Athens 
at the time of their occurrence, hundreds of miles 
away. The result of the battle of Platae was known 
the day it was fought, and the news of Thermopylae 
spread over Greece through the silent chambers of 
the air carried by arrows of light. The victory of 
Pharsalia was known in Rome at the time it occurred, 
and the events of Waterloo were discussed on the 
London Stock Exchange before it adjourned on the 
eighteenth of June ; and I, myself, in June, 1863, heard 
the attack of Ewell on Milroy and the result detailed 
in Richmond, one hundred and fifty miles away from 
Winchester, where the battle took place, on the Sun- 
day afternoon on which it occurred. There were no 
telegrams or possible means of communication. 

So when Tench Tilghman landed at Rock Hall, for 
his hundred miles' ride through the country, he found 
the hearts and minds of men and women aglow with 
a divine frenzy. They felt what had occurred without 
knowing it, and were wild for confirmation of knowl- 
edge. Up through Kent, without drawing rein, this 
solitary horseman sped his wav. When his horse 
began to fail he turned to his nearest kinsman — for 
they were mostly of the same blood — and riding up 
to the lonely farmhouse would shout, "Cornwallis is 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 85 

taken; a fresh horse for the Congress!" and in a min- 
ute he would be remounted and pushing on in a free 
gallop. All the night of the 22d he rode up the penin- 
sula, not a sound disturbing the silence of the dark- 
ness except the beat of his horse's hoofs. Every three 
or four hours he would ride up to a lonely homestead, 
still and quiet and dark in the first slumbers of the 
night, and thunder on the door with his sword : "Corn- 
wallis is taken ; a fresh horse for the Congress !" Like 
an electric shock the house would flash with an in- 
stant light and echo with the pattering feet of women, 
and before a dozen greetings could be exchanged, and 
but a word given of the fate of the loved ones at York, 
Tilghman would vanish in the gloom, leaving a trail 
of glory and of joy behind him. So he sped through 
Kent, across the head of Sassafras, through Chris- 
tiana, by Wilmington, straight on to Philadelphia. 
The tocsin and the slogan of his news spread like fire 
in dry grass, and left behind him a broad blaze of 
delirium and joy. 

"Cornwallis is taken !" passed from mouth to mouth, 
flew through the air, was wafted on the autumn 
breeze, shone with the sunlight. "Cornwallis is taken ! 
Liberty is won ! Peace is come ! Once more hus- 
bands, fathers, sons, lovers shall return to the hearts 
that gave them to the cause ! Once more shall joy 
set on every hearth and happiness shine over every 
rooftree!" When or where in all the tide of time has 
such a message been carried to such a people? 

Liberty with justice! 

Peace with honor! 

Victory with glory! Liberty, peace, victory, honor 
and glory now and forever, one and inseparable ! 



86 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

These were the tidings that Tench Tilghman bore 
when he rode into Philadelphia at midnight of the 
23d, four days from the army of York. The dispatch 
from De Grasse had been received, but the Congress 
and the people waited for Washington. Nothing was 
true but tidings from him. Rousing the President of 
Congress — McKean — Tilghman delivered his dispatch 
to him, and the news was instantly made public. The 
watchmen as they went their rounds cried : "Twelve 
o'clock, all is well, and Cornwallis is taken !" In a 
minute the whole city was wild ; lights flashed in every 
window ; men, women and children poured into the 
streets. The State House bell rang out its peal of 
/'Liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants 
thereof!" And thirteen sovereign and independent 
States were proclaimed to the world. 

— Bradley Tyler Johnson. 



THE MARYLAND LINE. 

We are proud of the grand Old Line, 
That back through a hundred years, 

Strove with the foe from Britain's Isle, 
With its life, and blood, and tears. 

We are proud of the brave Young Line, 

That gave to a stainless name 
The noble deeds of a daring cause 

To glow in the lists of fame. 

March on in the path of the Old. 

March out to the unborn years, 
We pledge your troth in a nation's need 

With a woman's faith and tears. 

— Esmeralda Boyle (?) 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 87 

WASHINGTON AND MONTGOMERY. - 



In the Convention of 1775, for the ease and con- 
venience of the people, it was resolved that the county 
of Frederick should be divided into three districts — 
upper, middle and lower — the lower district now con- 
stituting Montgomery county. By contemporaneous 
resolves on the sixth day of September, 1776, the upper 
and lower districts were erected into counties, the 
former to be called Washington and the latter Mont- 
gomery. Par nobile fratrum. Immortal names ! twin 
stars in the galaxy of heroes, now glowing with the 
blazon of victory ; but what meant those names when 
they were first enrolled in the catalogue of Maryland 
counties? Washington! with, a price upon his head, 
weeping at the carnage of the Maryland Line on the 
heights of Brooklyn. Montgomery ! filling a hero's 
grave on the plains of Quebec. These names (the first 
republican in the roll of counties) were pledges to the 
cause of liberty; that as the one had given his life 
to his adopted country and the other daily proffered 
himself, his fortune and his sacred honor as a willing 
sacrifice, so the Convention dedicated its territory, its 
sons and their estates to the defence of their rights 
and liberties. 

— Richard J. Bowie. 



BIRTH OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 



It is worthy to note, that this event occurred but 
sixty-two days after the adoption of the Declaration 
of Independence and presented the opportunity then 
immediately embraced by our immediate forefathers 



88 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

of this country, to draw a broad and distinct line be- 
tween royalty and republicanism, and thereby to pro- 
claim to the world, that the separation was final and 
forever. Hence the name of Montgomery after that 
gallant soldier, General Richard Montgomery, who, on 
the last day of the preceding year, 1775, yielded up 
his life in the heroic attempt to rescue the Canadas 
from the dominion of Great Britain, and win them to 
the struggling cause of self-government in the Ameri- 
can Colonies. No longer do we find our towns and 
counties, as of old, named after princes, and lords, and 
dukes ; but on the contrary, simple and illustrious re- 
publican names are adopted in their stead, as Washing- 
ton and Montgomery — one in spirit, in heroism and 
patriotism, like twin sisters, born on the same day and 
of the same parent, they will forever mark a new era, 
a new history and a new form of government in the 
State of Maryland. 

— A. B. Davis. 



THE OLD SENATE CHAMBER. 

When Edwin Warfield was Governor, dear, 

They brought the past to this chamber here; 

Stained and sweet with the old perfume 

Of vanished relics, they filled the room 

With desks and chairs and the old-time things 

They had gathered up from the buried springs 

Of yesteryears that were quaint with charm 

Of courtly revel and war's alarm; 

And so we are sitting as they sat then — 

The brocade dames and the gentlemen! 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 89 



'Twas here the Chief of the Nation stood, 

In his lofty spirit and somber mood, 

With sword unbuckled and trembling hand, 

To tender the seal of his great command. 

Rapt and tragic and touched with tears, 

That golden epoch of deathless years 

Shines in shadows that flutter by, 

And hearts still tremble and lips still sigh 

To see that figure of dauntless grace, 

And the high, sweet calm of his hero face! 

The Lady Washington sat that day 

Here where the shadows around us play; 

And the Governor leaned, with his hand on chin, 

And the daughters of Carroll had just come in — 

Ah, silent moment, when hearts were heard 

A-beat, beat, beat at his every word, 

And they in the seats of the gallery wept, 

And the colors gleamed where the sunlight crept, 

As far in the deep, sweet heart of the time 

The love for a soldier had grown sublime. 

It does not seem 'twas so long ago, 

As we sit and dream where the shadows flow; 

And I feel they will and I think they must 

Come back again from the tender dust, 

There on the gallery rail to lean, 

The. stately dames in their bombazine, 

And the old poke bonnets, the sweet side curls, 

And the velvet cheeks of the younger girls; 

And here on the benches, adrift in dream, 

The men of the days of the old regime! 

Ah, listen, child, to the speakers now, 

In the velvet breeks, with the courtly bow, 

The powdered wigs; and the ladies there 

With the lavender ribbons upon their hair, 

The quaint old bonnets, the lace and all, 

And the reticule and the pink crepe shawl; 

Smiling now at the gentry fine 

Whose silver buckles and garters shine, 

While they half attend to the work of state 

And half to the blue eyes of their fate! 



90 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

It all comes back while we're resting here 

Under the huge old chandelier; 

The backlog glows in the chimney place. 

And over the Severn the hounds a-chase 

Echo their yelp till it rings and calls 

To the shadow hearts in these shadow halls, 

And one by one to their steeds they fly — 

For the lure is sweet when the foxhounds cry, 

And the evening comes, and the bright lights glance 

Where the old Assembly begins its dance! 

To twine the past with the present, sweet, 

The gallery there, with its straight-back seat; 

The benches here, and the green baize door, 

Were brought from the dust of the days of yore; 

And the ghosts came, too, of those other days, 

And the sacred shadows from St. Ann's ways! 

Ah, see how friendly they come and go 

As we sit and dream where the fancies flow! 

And oh, how gentle their touch is, dear, 

As they lean and smile in the chamber here! 

— Folger McKlnscy. 



WASHINGTON SURRENDERS HIS COMMISSION. 



This memory-haunted room (the old Senate Cham- 
ber at Annapolis) is once more in appearance, save 
as to furniture, precisely as it was on the day when 
George Washington, soldier and gentleman, gave final 
account of his glorious work for our native land. 
What should be housed in that memorable room? 
Only those things or their fac-similes, equal in num- 
ber, which then were there — the Washington-Lafay- 
ette-Tilghman picture and copies of the resignation 
speech and the reply of Mifflin, President of the United 
States in Congress assembled, and a small likeness 
of the Trumbull picture of "Washington Resigning 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 91 

His Commission." In the two rooms beyond is ample 
and proper space for any other historic relics. 

So shall it be easier for the pilgrim to this shrine 
of unselfish duty to enkindle in his own soul that sacred 
fire which animated the simple and undaunted gen- 
tleman, George Washington. May each such pilgrim 
come near with the knowledge told in these clear 
words of a contemporary account of the august and 
simple ceremonial of the resignation scene: 

According to order, His Excellency the Comman- 
der-in-Chief was admitted to a public audience of 
Congress, and, being seated, the President, after a 
pause, informed him that the United States assem- 
bled were ready to receive his communication. Where- 
upon he arose and spoke as follows : 

Mr. President — The great events on which my resig- 
nation depended having at length taken place, I pre- 
sent myself before Congress to surrender into their 
hands the trust committed to me, and claim the in- 
dulgence of retiring from the service of my country. 
Happy in the confirmation of our independence and 
sovereignty, I resign the appointment I accepted with 
diffidence, which, however, was superseded by a con- 
fidence in the rectitude of our cause, the support of 
the supreme power of the nation and the patronage 
of Heaven. I close this last act of my official life 
by commending the interests of our dearest country 
to the protection of Almighty God, and those who 
have the superintendence of them to His holy keep- 
ing. Having finished the work assigned me, I retire 
from the great theatre of action, and bidding an af- 
fectionate farewell to this august body, under whose 
orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commis- 
sion and take my leave of the employments of my pub- 
lic life. 



92 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

To which the President replied : 

Sir — Having defended the standard of liberty in 
the New World ; having taught a lesson useful to those 
who inflict and those who feel oppression, you retire 
with the blessings of your fellow-citizens, though the 
glory of your virtues will not terminate with your 
military command, but will descend to remotest ages. 

There will never be a shrine more sacred to the 
virtues of a patriotic gentleman than yonder old Sen- 
ate Chamber in Annapolis. Since that memorable 
twenty-third of December, 1783, it has been redolent 
of the fine flavor of the highest patriotic character 
that has ever flowered amongst Angle-Saxon men. 
To the recipient soul Washington at his best is ever 
present there. 

And that the visitor, seeing again about him the 
surroundings of that memorable resignation day may 
easily drink in the fertile suggestions of the deathless 
and magnificent and unsullied deed of simple grandeur 
there performed, is something full worthy for the 
gracious and impassioned conservatism of our native 
Maryland to have achieved. 

— DeCourcy W. Thorn. 



THE SWORD OF WASHINGTON. 

On Fame's proud summit, there it glows, 

All glittering in its pride; 
The honored steel that clung in war 

Close to the hero's side. 

Thrice honored still, the proudest blade 

That warrior ever drew; 
In Virtue's name 'twas sanctified 

To Virtue ever true. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 93 

It rose the Revolution's light, 

A glowing, burning star; 
And rayed its lustre far above 

The stormy tide of war. 

From Bunker's hill to Yorktown's heights, 

A fearful flame it spread; 
And Freedom's phalanx, firmly joined, 

To victory it led. 



Proud steel! the warrior hand that drew 
Thee, shining from thy sheath, 

Baptized thy edge in Freedom's fane 
For Liberty or Death. 

The warrior soul that gave thee fame, 

At Freedom's altar caught 
The hallowed zeal that bore him through 

The storms with perils fraught. 

Star of the brave, the storm is past, 

And Freedom, now at ease, 
Looks on thee, and the flag that floats 

In triumph on the breeze. 



-Rev. John N. McJilton, D. D. 



THE SPIRIT OF MARYLAND IN 1794. 

When Britain first at Heaven's command 

Arose from out the azure main, 
This was the charter of the land — 

And guardian angels sung the strain; 
"Rule, Britannia, Britannia, rule the waves, 
For Britons never shall be slaves." 

'Twas thus, when rival nations strove, 
Ere Freedom's sacred name was known, 

That, ardent with their country's love, 
And claiming Ocean as their own, 

They sung "Britannia, Britannia rule the waves, 

For Britons never shall be slaves." 



94 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

But wherefore Britons rule the waves; 

Why grasp the wide, extended sea; 
Must all the world, beside, be slaves, 

That only Britons may be free? 
Hence, then, Britannia no more shall rule the waves 
Nor see the nations round her slaves. 

On every coast, on every shore, 
The bounteous sea her treasure spreads, 

To countless millions wafts her store, 
Nor tribute pays to crowned Heads; 

Hence, then, let Britannia no longer rule the waves. 

Nor seek to make thy equals slaves. 

For see! Columbia's sons arise; 

Firm, independent, bold and free; 
They, too, shall seize the glorious prize, 

And share the Empire of the sea. 
Hence, then, let freemen, let freemen rule the waves 
And those who yield them still be slaves. 

This glorious day which still shall live 

Illustrious, in the book of fame; 
This day revolving, still shall give 

A kindling spark of freedom's flame. 
And we, as freemen, we'll use, not rule the waves, 
Nor own a power to make us slaves. 

And still on this auspicious day, 

Like friends and brethren, let us join 

In concert tune the festive lay, 
Sacred to Liberty, divine, 

Which still will guard us in land and on the waves, 

Determined never to be slaves. 

Nor on this day let memory fail 

To celebrate each Hero slain; 
With Patriot tears their fate bewail, 

Who died our freedom to obtain. 
Which may we cherish in land and on the waves, 
Nor change from freemen to be slaves. 



MARYLAND IN PROSS AND POETRY. 95 



But chiefly him whose faithful toils 

Led us to Liberty and Peace, 
On whom America still smiles 

With gratitude that ne'er shall cease. 
Long may the Hero live, who still his country saves, 
Nor ever let him see us slaves. 

—William Kilty. 



TO THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT. 

In stately majesty thy shaft aspires 

To hold companionship with cloud and sky, 

And wins the blush of morning's early fires, 
And the last glances of the day-god's eye, 
When on the horizon fades the purple dye 

In hues of glory to the light clouds given; 
How like thy patriot's own sublimity, 

Thou risest in the atmosphere of even, 

Above the lowly earth to lose thyself in heaven. 

Oppression has not wrested from the hands 

Of poverty a boon to royal pride; 
War has not garnered up from wasted lands 

Her spoils where carnage swept in purple tide, 

For servile hands to rear a pile to hide 
Ambition's end — or gild a hero's name; 

Thou art the gift of freemen far and wide, 
By freemen reared — made sacred by his fame, 
As altars sanctify their offerings by their flame. 

The mausoleum's pile — the pyramid 

With its broad base outlives the names of kings 
Who vainly hoped beneath the rocky lid 

To escape the blighting of Oblivion's wings— 

Thine is the fame, oh! Washington, which springs 
From godlike deeds — thy name in every clime, 

Graved on the heart, when age revolving brings 
The adamant to dust, throughout all time, 
Shall freedom's watchword be — eternal and sublime. 



96 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

Thy glory was immaculate of guilt — 

Thy greatness was a blessing to mankind — 

The blood which thy victorious falchion spilt 
Flowed not to tamper an ambitious mind, 
But in libations fell for liberty designed; 

And when the olive bound the laurel bough, 
The camp was for the senate hall resigned; 

There truth and wisdom having wreathed thy brow, 

Thou went a second Cincinnatus to the plough. 

— Nathan Covington Brooks. 



THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. 

Oh! say can you see, by the dawn's early light, 

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? 
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the clouds of 
the fight 
O'er the rampartswe watched were so gallantly streaming! 
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; 
O, say, does that Star-Spangled banner yet wave 
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave? 

On that shore dimly seen through the mist of the deep, 

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, 
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, 

As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses? 
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, 
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream; 
'Tis the Star-Spangled banner; O, long may it wave 
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave! 

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore 
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion 
A home and a country should leave us no more? 

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution. 
No refuge could save the hireling and slave , 
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave; 
And the Star-Spangled banner in triumph doth wave 
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 97 

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand 

Between their loved home and the war's desolation! 
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land 

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! 
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, 
And this be our motto — "In God Is Our Trust." 
And the Star-Spangled banner in triumph shall wave 
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 

— Francis Scott Key. 



WHEN KEY WROTE HIS SONG. 



Writing from Washington, in 1856, Chief Justice 
Roger Brooke Taney, of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, in a letter to a relative of the poet, gave 
an authoritative account of the composition of "The 
Star-Spangled Banner :" 

In 1814, when the song was written, I resided in 
Frederic, and Mr. Key in Georgetown. . . . Soon after 
the British troops retired from Washington a squadron 
of the enemy's ships made their way up the Potomac 
and appeared before Alexandria, which was compelled 
to capitulate and the squadron remained there some 
days, plundering the town of tobacco and whatever 
else they wanted. It was rumored and believed in 
Frederic that a marauding attack of the same character 
would be made on Washington and Georgetown before 
the ships left the river. Mr. Key's family were still in 
Georgetown. He would not, and indeed could not 
with honor, leave the place while it was threatened by 
the enemy, for he was a volunteer in the light artillery 
commanded by Major Peter, which was composed of 
citizens of the District of Columbia, who had uni- 
formed themselves and offered their services to the 



98 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

government and who had been employed in active ser- 
vice from the time the British fleet appeared in the 
Patuxent preparatory to the movement upon Washing- 
ton, and Mrs. Key refused to leave home while Mr. 
Key was thus daily exposed to danger. . . . When I 
reached Georgetown I found the English ships still at 
Alexandria, and a body of militia encamped in Wash- 
ington which had been assembled to defend the city. 
But it was then believed from information received 
that no attack would be made by the enemy on Wash- 
ington or Georgetown, and preparations were making 
on our part to annoy them by batteries on shore when 
they descended the river. The knowledge of these 
preparations probably hastened their departure, and 
the second or third day after my arrival the ships were 
seen moving down the Potomac. 

On the evening of the day after the enemy disap- 
peared Mr. Richard West arrived at Mr. Key's and 
told him that after the British army passed through 
Upper Marlbro' on their return to their ships and had 
encamped some miles below the town, a detachment 
was sent back which entered Dr. Beanes's house about 
midnight, compelled him to rise from his bed, and 
hurried him off to the British camp, hardly allowing 
him time to put his clothes on; that he was treated 
with great harshness and closely guarded, and that as 
soon as his friends were apprized of his situation they 
hastened to the headquarters of the English army to 
solicit his release, but it was peremptorily refused, and 
they were not even permitted to see him ; and that he 
had been carried as a prisoner on board the fleet, and 
finding their own efforts unavailing, and alarmed for 
his safety, his friends in and about Marlbro' thought it 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 99 

advisable that Mr. West should hasten to Georgetown 
and request Mr. Key to obtain the sanction of the gov- 
ernment to his going on board the Admiral's ship under 
a flag of truce and endeavoring to procure the release 
of Dr. Beanes before the fleet sailed. It was then 
lying at the mouth of the Potomac and its destination 
was not at that time known with certainty. Dr. Beanes 
was the leading physician in Upper Marlbro' and an 
accomplished scholar and gentleman. He was highly 
respected by all who knew him, was the family physi- 
cian of Mr. West and the intimate friend of Mr. Key. 
He occupied one of the best houses in Upper Marlbro' 
and lived very handsomely ; and his house was selected 
for the quarters of Admiral Cockburn and some of the 
principal officers of the army, when the British troops 
encamped at Marlbro' on their march to Washington. 
These officers were, of course, furnished with every- 
thing the house could offer; and they, in return, treated 
him with much courtesy and placed guards around his 
grounds and outhouses to prevent depredations by 
their troops. 

But on the return of the army to the ships after the 
main body had passed through the town, stragglers 
who had left the ranks to plunder, or from some other 
motive, made their appearance from time to time 
singly or in small squads ; and Dr. Beanes put himself 
at the head of a small body of citizens to pursue and 
make prisoners of them. Information of this proceed- 
ing was, by some means or other, conveyed to the Eng- 
lish camp ; and the detachment of which I have spoken 
was sent back to release the prisoners and seize Dr. 
Beanes. They did not seem to regard him and cer- 



100 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

tainly did not treat him as a prisoner of war, but as 
one who had deceived and broken his faith to them. 

Mr. Key readily agreed to undertake the mission in 
his favor, and the President promptly gave his sanc- 
tion to it. Orders were immediately issued to the 
vessel usually employed as a cartel in the communica- 
tions with the fleet in the Chesapeake to be made ready 
without delay; and Mr. John S. Skinner, who was 
agent for the government for flags of truce and ex- 
change of prisoners, and who was well-known as such 
to the officers of the fleet, was directed to accompany 
Mr. Key. And as soon as the arrangements were 
made, he hastened to Baltimore, where the vessel was, 
to embark ; and Mrs. Key and the children went with 
me to Frederic and thence to his father's on Pipe Creek, 
where she remained until he returned. 

We heard nothing from him until the enemy re- 
treated from Baltimore, which, as well as I can now 
recollect, was a week or ten days after he left us ; and 
we were becoming uneasy about him when, to our 
great joy, he made his appearance at my house on his 
way to join his family. He told me that he found the 
British fleet at the mouth of the Potomac, preparing 
for the expedition against Baltimore. He was courte- 
ously received by Admiral Cochrane and the officers 
of the army as well as the navy. But when he made 
known his business his application was received so 
coldly that he feared it would fail. General Ross and 
Admiral Cockburn — who accompanied the expedition 
to Washington — particularly the latter, spoke of Dr. 
Beanes in very harsh terms and seemed at first not 
disposed to release him. It, however, happened 
fortunately that Mr. Skinner carried letters from the 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 101 

wounded British officers left at Bladensburg; and in 
these letters to their friends on board the fleet they 
all spoke of the humanity and kindness with which 
they had been treated after they had fallen into our 
hands. 

And after a good deal of conversation and strong 
representations from Mr. Key as to the character and 
standing of Dr. Beanes, and of the deep interest which 
the community in which he lived took in his fate, Gen- 
eral Ross said that Dr. Beanes deserved much more 
punishment than he had received ; but that he felt him- 
self bound to make a return for the kindness which had 
been shown to his wounded officers, whom he had 
been compelled to leave at Bladensburg; and upon that 
ground and that only he woulji release him. But Mr. 
Key was at the same time informed that neither he nor 
any one else would be permitted to leave the fleet for 
some days ; and must be detained until the attack on 
Baltimore which was then about to be made was over. 
But he was assured that they would make him and Mr. 
Skinner as comfortable as possible while they detained 
them. Admiral Cochrane, with whom they dined on 
the day of their arrival, apologized for not accommo- 
dating them in his own ship, saying that it was crowded 
already with officers of the army, but that they would 
be well taken care of in the frigate Surprise, com- 
manded by his son, Sir Thomas Cochrane. And to this 
frigate they were accordingly transferred. 

Mr. Key had an interview with Dr. Beanes before 
General Ross consented to release him. I do not re- 
collect whether he was on board the Admiral's ship or 
the Surprise, but I believe it was the former. He 
found him in the forward part of the ship, among the 



102 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

sailors and soldiers ; he had not had a change of cloth- 
ing from the time he was seized; was constantly 
treated with indignity by those around him, and no 
officer would speak to him. He was treated as a 
culprit and not as a prisoner of war. And this harsh 
and humiliating treatment continued until he was 
placed on board the cartel. 

Something must have passed when the officers were 
quartered at his house, on the march to Washington, 
which, in the judgment of General Ross, bound him 
not to take up arms against the English forces until 
the troops had re-embarked. It is impossible on any 
other ground to account for the manner in which he 
was spoken of and treated. But whatever General 
Ross and the other officers may have thought I am 
quite sure that Dr. Beanes did not think he was in any 
way pledged to abstain from active hostilities against 
the public enemy. And when he made prisoners of 
the stragglers he did not consider himself as a prisoner 
on parole, nor suppose himself to be violating any 
obligation he had incurred. For he was a gentleman 
of untainted character and a nice sense of honor and 
incapable of doing anything that could have justified 
such treatment. Mr. Key imputed the ill-usage he re- 
ceived to the influence of Admiral Cockburn who, it is 
still remembered, while he commanded in the Chesa- 
peake, carried on hostilities in a vindictive temper, as- 
sailing and plundering defenseless villages or counten- 
ancing such proceedings by those under his command. 

Mr. Key and Mr. Skinner continued on board of the 
Surprise, where they were very kindly treated by Sir 
Thomas Cochrane, until the fleet reached the Patapsco, 
and preparations were making for landing the troops. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 103 

s 

Admiral Cochrane had shifted his flag to the frigate in 
order that he might be able to move farther up the 
river and superintend in person the attack by water on 
the fort. And Mr. Key and Mr. Skinner were then 
sent on board their own vessel, with a guard of sailors 
or marines to prevent them from landing. They were 
permitted to take Dr. Beanes with them, and they 
thought themselves fortunate in being anchored in a 
position to see distinctly the flag of FortMcHenry from 
the deck of the vessel. He proceeded then with much 
animation to describe the scene on the night of the 
bombardment. He and Mr. Skinner remained on deck 
during the night, watching every shell from the mo- 
ment it was fired until it fell, listening with breathless 
interest to hear if any explosion followed. While the 
bombardment continued it was sufficient proof that 
the fort had not surrendered. But it suddenly ceased 
sometime before day, and as they had no communica- 
tion with any of the enemy's ships, they did not know 
whether the fort had surrendered or the attack upon it 
been abandoned. They paced the deck for the residue 
of the night in painful suspense, watching with intense 
anxiety for the return of day, and looking every few 
minutes at their watches to see how long they must 
wait for it ; and as soon as it dawned and before it was 
light enough to see objects at a distance their glasses 
were turned to the fort, uncertain whether they should 
see there the Stars and Stripes or the flag of the enemy. 
At length the light came and they saw that "our flag 
was still there." And as the day advanced they dis- 
covered from the movements of the boats between the 
shore and the fleet that the troops had been roughly 
handled, and that many wounded men were carried to 



104 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

the ships. At length he was informed that the attack 
on Baltimore had failed and the British army was re- 
embarking, and that he and Mr. Skinner and Dr. 
Beanes would be permited to leave them and go where 
they pleased, as soon as the troops were on board and 
the fleet ready to sail. 

He then told me that under the excitement of the 
time he had written a song and handed me a printed 
copy of the "Star-Spangled Banner/' When I had 
read it and expressed my admiration I asked him how 
he had found time in the scenes he had been passing 
through to compose such a song? He said he com- 
menced it on the deck of their vessel, in the fervor of 
the moment, when he saw the enemy hastily retreat- 
ing to their ships and looked at the flag he had watched 
for so anxiously as the morning opened ; that he had 
written some lines or brief notes that would aid him in 
calling them to mind upon the back of a letter which 
he happened to have in his pocket, and for some of the 
lines as he proceeded he was obliged to rely altogether 
upon his memory; and that he finished it in the boat 
on his way to the shore and wrote it out as it now 
stands at the hotel on the night he reached Baltimore 
and immediately after he arrived. He said that on the 
next morning he took it to Judge Nicholson to ask him 
what he thought of it; that he was so much pleased 
with it that he immediately sent it to a printer and 
directed copies to be struck oft" in hand-bill form and 
he, Mr. Key, believed it to have been favorably re- 
ceived by the Baltimore public. 

Judge Nicholson and Mr. Key were nearly con- 
nected by marriage, Mrs. Key and Mrs. Nicholson 
being sisters. The Judge was a man of cultivated 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 105 

taste, had at once time been distinguished among 
the leading men in Congress, and was at the period 
of which I speak the Chief Justice of Baltimore, and 
one of the Judges of the Court of Appeals of Mary- 
land. Notwithstanding his judicial character which 
exempted him from military service, he accepted 
the command of a volunteer company of artillery, and 
when the enemy approached and an attack on the fort 
was expected he and his company offered their services 
to the government to assist in its defense. They were 
accepted and formed a part of the garrison during the 
bombardment. The Judge had been relieved from 
duty and returned to his family only the night before 
Mr. Key showed him his song. And you may easily 
imagine the feelings with which, at such a moment, he 
read it and gave it to the public. It was, no doubt, as 
Mr. Key modestly expressed it, favorably received. In 
less than an hour after it was placed in the hands of 
the printers it was all over town and hailed with en- 
thusiasm and took its place at once as a national song. 
. . . I have felt a melancholy pleasure in recalling 
events connected in any degree with the life of one 
with whom I was so long and so closely united in 
friendship and affection, and whom I so much admired 
for his brilliant genius and loved for his many virtues. 
While the song shows his genius and taste as a poet, 
the incidents connected with it and the circumstances 
under which it was written, will show his character 
and worth as a man. The scene he describes and the 
warm spirit of patriotism which breathes in the song, 
were not the offspring of mere fancy or poetic imagina- 
tion. He describes what he actually saw, and he tells 
us what he felt while witnessing the conflict and what 



106 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

he felt when the battle was over and the victory won 
by his countrymen. Every word comes warm from 
his heart, and for that reason, even more than for its 
poetic merit, it never fails to find a response in the 
hearts of those who listen to it. 



DEATH OF GENERAL ROSS. 

Rosstrevor's mountains slope to sea, 

O'er Carlingfbrd dark shadows rise; 
Verdure spreads o'er outlying lea, 

In emerald beauty, 'neath those skies. 
There Ross looked out when first he saw 

The light of day with eyes of fire; 
There grew to strength of lion's paw 

With courage which the brave admire. 

The deadly muskets' bright display, 

Along the roadbed moved on down, 
Nearing the Briton in his way 

Of rapid march toward the town. 
In mute surprise stood face to face 

Invading host and skirmishers; 
They locked their arms in death's embrace, 

As well became such musketeers. 
Ross heard the fire, then urged his horse, 

Heedless of unexpected snare; 
He plunged on madly in his course, 

Reckless of warning word "Beware!" 
Howard, at front, sustained the shock, 

The blast on Aisquith's line uprose, 
Levering's rank stood firm as rock, 

Clouds gathered o'er the smoky throes; 
It wreathed and curled beneath the skies, 

When Randall's spirit swept through space, 
Above the earth was seen to rise, 

With sunshine streaming o'er his face. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 107 

McComas walk'd the steps through air — 

With Wells departed out of sight; 
They passed to distant climes afar, 

Unbounded by the shades of night. 
The wounded Ross, by friendly arms, 

Was laid beside the crimson road. 
He closed his ears to war's alarms, 

Amid the ebbing of his blood. 
Andre fell in his early morn, 

The flowers of youth around his brow, 
With manly virtues which adorn 

And bear their blossoms even now. 
Of Donaldson, let sweetest lay 

Awake o'er him sublimest song. 

The hour had come to end suspense, 

The raging storm fierce howled without; 
The Britons through the dark stole hence, 

Nor left behind a single scout. 
They reached the shore and through the gale 

Were rowed beside their rocking ship. 
The tars unreefed the canvas sail 

And bid their vessel onward sweep. 
Cockburn gazed on surrounding space — 

The stern, defiant old corsair; 
Chagrin was written on his face, 

To melancholy he was heir; 
He saw his flag, with colors fast, 

Float sadly o'er the briny flood — 
The flag of Britain at half-mast 

For one whose fate was sealed in blood. 

— William M. Marine. 



THE BATTLE MONUMENT, BALTIMORE. 

Marble remembrancer, 
And volume of enduring history, 
Writ for the nations; kings the pages read, 
And turn in terror from the stern reproof, 
That stares the trembling despot in the teeth, 



108 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



And stings the fierce oppressor to the soul. 
A beacon thou of Freedom — bright and pure — 
A Parian way-mark on the road that leads 
From the low shades of servitude and shame, 
Up to the sunlit realm of Liberty. 

.... On thy rim 
Is written with the pen of steel, and thou 
Wilt ever bear its tracery of blood — 
"Resistance to the base usurper's law." 
The rights of men — their consecrated rights, 
Chartered by heaven and inalienable, 
Are chiseled on thy chaplet; thou dost bear 
Witness of their anointing, and the blood 
That sprinkles thee in baptism, hath reared up 
A mighty battlement around these shores; 
More firm than walls of adamantine strength — 
More durable than marble — a tower high 
Built of affection, that may never fall. 
The mountain's granite crown fierce storms may wear, 
And ever rolling waves may waste the rocks 
'Till they become as nothing; but the winds, 
Nor sweeping waves, nor Time's eternal tooth, 
May touch the deeds affection makes her own. 
The tale ensculptured on thy snowy frieze, 
Memory's immortal finger hath enscribed 
On hearts unnumbered, the high fortress now 
Of fadeless liberty forever fixed .... 
And may the goddess of the city stand 
Forever in the sunlight of thy shaft, 
Wearing her mural crown, and holding high 
The laurel wreath which in her hand she bears. 

— Rev. John N. Mc Jilt on, D. D. 



PARSON THOMAS AND THE BRITISH ARMY. 



No event in the history of Rev. Joshua Thomas gave 
such a wide celebrity to his name or was remembered 
by himself .with more interest than that which we 
now proceed to record. As the man who, in preaching 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 109 

to the enemies of his country, foretold their defeat, 
and warned them against proceeding to Baltimore; 
who gained their respect for his unflinching adherence 
to truth and right, he earned a notoriety and well- 
merited distinction that will live through many gen- 
erations. The Prettyman Manuscript (autobiography 
of Parson Thomas) continues : 

"Towards the close of summer, in the year 1814, 
we were made aware of some important movement 
among the British forces encamped on Tangier Island. 
Preparations began both on shore and through the 
fleet in the harbor. Signals were exchanged, orders 
given and all became bustle and activity. Some of the 
officers told me the cause of all this — they were going 
to take Baltimore. I told them they had better let 
it alone; they might be mistaken in their calculations, 
for the Baltimoreans would resist them, and would 
fight hard for their city and their homes. 'Oh,' said 
they, 'we can take it easily.' I told them it was a 
dangerous undertaking, in my opinion, for I believed 
God would fight for the good people in that city and 
aid them in defeating their enemies. Before they left 
Tangier they sent me word to be ready to hold a 
public meeting and exhort the soldiers on the camp 
ground. I did not like to refuse, and yet I was very 
unwilling to perforin this duty ... It was arranged 
to be the last Sunday they were in camp. Early that 
morning the flags were hoisted, the drums beat and 
every preparation was made for a full turnout. Boats 
were plying from the ships to the shore and bands 
of music were playing on board. At the hour ap- 
pointed the soldiers were all drawn up in solid columns, 
about twelve thousand men, under the pines of the 



110 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

old camp ground, which formed the open space in 
the centre of their tents. I stood on a little platform, 
erected at the end of the camp nearest the shore, all 
the men facing me with their hats off and held by the 
right hand under the left arm. An officer stood on 
my right and one on my left, and sentries were sta- 
tioned a little distance to the rear. As I looked around 
on my congregation I never had such feelings in my 
life, but I felt determined to give them a faithful warn- 
ing. After singing and prayer I began to feel a little 
better in mind and more at liberty. Soon all fear and 
embarrassment were taken away from me and I pro- 
ceeded in my exhortation as freely as ever I did in 
any place or before any people ... I thanked them 
and their Admiral for the kindness they manifested 
to us, but I could not bid them God speed in what I 
understood they were going to do. 1 warned them 
of the danger and distress they would bring upon 
themselves and others by going to Baltimore with the 
object they had in view. I told them of the great 
wickedness of war and that God said 'Thou shalt not 
kill.' If you do, He will judge you at the last day, 
or before then; He will cause you to 'perish by the 
sword.' I told them it was given me from the Al- 
mighty that they could not take Baltimore and would 
not succeed in their expedition. I exhorted them to 
prepare for death, for many of them would in all like- 
lihood die soon, and I should see them no more till 
we met at the sound of the great trumpet before our 
final Judge." 

The service concluded, many stepped up to the in- 
trepid parson and thanked him for his faithful warn- 
ings, and said they hoped it would not go so hard 






MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. Ill 

with them as he had foretold. He shook his head and 
said he felt that many that day had received their last 
call . . . The most remarkable thing about his ad- 
dress was the steady persistence with which he pre- 
dicted the defeat of their intended expedition to Balti- 
more. The army had hitherto met with but feeble 
resistance at any point up or down the bay. Bladens- 
burg had proved the weakness of our defense, Wash- 
ington was a heap of smoking ruins, Alexandria ca- 
pitulated without resistance, and now, with concen- 
trated force, the whole squadron pours its flushed and 
confident thousands on Baltimore. The proud fleet 
weighed anchor, and, with pennants streaming and 
decks bristling with the machinery of war, stood up 
the bay and left the anxious islanders awaiting the 
issue. The booming of heavy ordnance was wafted 
o'er the waters day after day and night after night, 
gun answering to gun, until silence told the people 
of Tangier that the fight was over. But was it gained 
or lost by the assailants? For tidings that might settle 
this question they waited with sleepless eagerness. 
Brother Thomas showed no concern except for the 
slain in battle, of which he expected to hear. He says : 
"When the battle was over we saw them coming 
and I went down to meet the first that landed. I felt 
great distress for fear many of those I knew had been 
killed, and also lest some of our own people (the citi- 
zens of Baltimore) had met their death. My worst 
fears were far short of the reality. The first officers 
I met I asked them if they had taken Baltimore. They 
looked at me and said : 'No, but hundreds of our brave 
men have been slain and our best general is killed. 
It turned out just as you told us the Sunday before 



112 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

we left. All the time we were righting we thought 
of you and what you told us. You seemed to be stand- 
ing right before us, still warning us against our at- 
tempt to take Baltimore.' " 

—Rev. Adam Wallace. 



BALTIMORE. 



Go, tread yon green and glorious hill, 

And cast thine eye adown the bay! 
O! who could gaze nor feel a thrill 

Through the glad pulses play. 
Before thee spreads Patapsco's tide, 

The rival of the dazzling sky, 
And on its waves in swan-like pride, 

The barks move stately by. 

And see that banner of our sires 

Above McHenry's bulwarks wave, 
Where once it lit with holy fires 

To victory, freedom's brave. 
In adamant that standard's fixed 

Till light to darkness shall be hurled — 
Its stars with those of heaven be mixed — 

The beacon of the world. 

O! Armistead! nursed by freedom's dame 

To lead her sons to glory's shrine, 
Why speak thy much loved banner's name 

Without a thought of thine? 
Long as Patapsco's waves shall roll 

Around the walls thy valor manned, 
Or floats aloft yon eagle scroll, 

Thy hallowed name shall stand. 

— Ovaries Soran. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 113 



WASHINGTON. 

Thine all the fame that war bestows, 
And all that peace can give be thine; 

Far expell'd thy country's foes, 
Olives with thy laurels twine. 

Now the work of death is o'er, 
Pale-ey'd danger quits our shore, 
Sheath the sword, embrace the drum, 
See the great Deliverer come. 
Wake, my bards, your choral lay, 
Hallow the auspicious day; 

And hail, as Freedom's joyful ardours burn. 

In glory and peace, my Washington's return. 

Fair Freedom smiles, the work is done, 

The laurel wreath adorns her fane; 
By me she greets her Washington, 
And pays this consecrated strain". 

Nor thou refuse the hallowed lay, 
Thy country's genius still shall pay, 
For not alone the ensanguin'd field 
Rich harvests of Renown shall yield; 
But pleas'd beside thy calm retreat, 
The civic virtues fix their seat. 
While through thy groves, and o'er thy crystal springs, 
Contentment still shall smile and honour wave her wings. 
(1783.) —John Thomas. 



DECLARATION ON TAKING UP ARMS. 



Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our in- 
ternal resources are great, and if necessary foreign 
assistance is undoubtedly obtainable. We gratefully 
acknowledge, as a signal instance of Divine favor to- 
wards us, that His providence would not permit us 
to be called into this severe controversy until we were 
grown up to our present strength, had been previ- 



114 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

ously exercised in warlike operations and possessed 
the means of defending ourselves. With hearts forti- 
fied by these animating reflections we most solemnly, 
before God and the world, Declare, that, exercising 
the utmost energy of those powers which our benefi- 
cent Creator has graciously bestowed upon us, the 
arms we have been compelled by our enemies to as- 
sume we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabat- 
ing firmness and perseverance, employ for the preser- 
vation of our liberties, being with one mind resolved 
to die freemen rather than to live slaves. 

Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of 
our friends and fellow-subjects in any part of the 
empire, we assure them that we mean not to dissolve 
that union which has so long and so happily sub- 
sisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to 
see restored. Necessity has not yet driven us into that 
desperate measure or induced us to excite any other 
nation to war against them. We have not raised 
armies with ambitious designs of separating from 
Great Britain and establishing independent States. We 
fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to 
mankind the remarkable spectacle of a people at- 
tacked by unprovoked enemies, without any imputa- 
tion or even suspicion of offense. They boast of their 
privileges and civilization and yet proffer no milder 
conditions than servitude or death. In our own native 
land, in defense of the freedom that is our birthright, 
and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of 
it — for the protection of our property acquired solely 
by the honest industry of our forefathers and ourselves 
against violence actually offered we have taken up 
arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 115 

cease on the part of the aggressors and all danger of 
their being renewed shall be removed, and not be- 
fore. With an humble confidence in the mercies of 
the Supreme and Impartial Judge and Ruler of the 
Universe, we most devoutly implore His divine good- 
ness to protect us happily through this great conflict, 
to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reason- 
able terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from 
the calamities of civil war. 

— John Dickinson. 



THE LAST SIGNER. 



In the year 1826, after all save one of the band of 
patriots whose signatures are borne on the Declara- 
tion of Independence had descended to the tomb, and 
the venerable Carroll alone remained among the living, 
the government of the City of New York deputed a 
committee to wait on the illustrious survivor and 
obtain from him, for deposit in the public hall of the 
city, a copy of the Declaration of 1776, graced and 
authenticated anew with his sign manual. The aged 
patriot yielded to the request and affixed with his own 
hand to the copy of that instrument the grateful, sol- 
emn and pious supplemental declaration: 

"Grateful to Almighty God for the blessings which, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord, he has conferred on 
my beloved country in her emancipation, and on my- 
self in permitting me, under circumstances of mercy, 
to live to the age of 89 years, and to survive the fif- 
tieth year of American independence and certify by 
my present signature my approbation of the Declara- 
tion of Independence adopted by Congress on the 4th 



116 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

of July, 1776, which I originally subscribed on the 
2d day of August of the same year, and of which 
I am now the last surviving signer, I do hereby rec- 
ommend to the present and future generations the 
principles of that important document as the best 
earthly inheritance their ancestors could bequeath to 
them, and pray that the civil and religious liberties 
they have secured to my country may be perpetuated 
to remotest posterity, and extended to the whole fam- 
ily of man. 

Charles Carroll of Carrollton." 
August 2, 1826. 



THOMAS STONE. 



Many of those bold patriots who pledged life, for- 
tune and honor in support of the independence of the 
United States of America left behind but few written 
memorials of the scenes in which they took a con- 
spicuous part, and hence the biographers who engaged 
in the task of delineating the characters and acts of 
those men were obliged to find their materials in scat- 
tered fragments among public records, or from the 
lips of surviving relatives or compatriots. Such was 
the case of Thomas Stone, whose unassuming manners 
and attachment to domestic life kept him in apparent 
obscurity except when called forth by the commands 
of duty. Thomas Stone was born at Pointoin Manor, 
in the Province of Maryland, in the year 1743. After 
receiving a good English education and some knowl- 
edge of the classics, he entered upon the study of the 
law, and at the age of twenty-one years he commenced 
its practice. Although quite unambitious of personal 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 117 

fame, he nevertheless, from the impulses of a patriotic 
heart, espoused the cause of the patriots and took an 
active part in the movements preliminary to the call- 
ing of the first General Congress in 1774. He was 
elected one of the first five delegates thereto from that 
State, andafter actively performing his duties through- 
out the first short session he again retired to private 
life. But his talents and his patriotism had become 
too conspicuous for his fellow-citizens to allow him to 
remain inactive, and toward the latter part of 1775 
he was again elected to the General Congress. Mr. 
Stone, like Paca and others, voted for and signed the 
Declaration of Independence. He was one of the com- 
mittee that framed the Articles of Confederation, which 
were finally adopted in November, 1777. He was 
again elected to Congress in that year, and finally 
retired from it early in 1778 and entered the Legisla- 
i ture of his own State, where he earnestly advocated 
the adoption by that body of the Articles of Confed- 
eration. Mr. Stone was again elected to Congress 
in 1783, and was present when General Washington 
resigned his military commission into the hands of 
that body. In 1784 he was appointed President of 
Congress pro tempore, and had not his native mod- 
esty supervened he would doubtless have been regu- 
larly elected to that important station, then the high- 
est office in the gift of the people. On the adjourn- 
ment of Congress he returned to his constituents and 
resumed the duties of his profession at Port Tobacco, 
the place of his residence, where he died on the fifth 
day of October, 1787, in the forty-fifth year of his age. 

-D. W. Belisle. 



118 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

SAMUEL CHASE. 



Samuel Chase was born on the seventeenth day of 
April, 1741, in Somerset county, Maryland. His father 
was a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
and, possessing an excellent education himself, he im- 
parted such instruction to his son in the study of the 
classics and in the common branches of an English 
education as well fitted him for entering upon pro- 
fessional life. He commenced the study of law at the 
age of eighteen years, under Messrs. Hammond and 
Hall, of Annapolis, who stood at the head of their 
profession in that section of the province. At the 
age of twenty he was admitted to practice before the 
mayor's court, and at twenty-two he became a member 
of the bar and was allowed to practice in the chan- 
cery and other colonial courts. He located at Annapo- 
lis, where he soon became distinguished as an advo- 
cate and one of the most successful lawyers in the 
province. At the early age of twenty years Mr. Chase 
was chosen a member of the Provincial Assembly, and 
there his independence of feeling and action in mat- 
ters of principle greatly offended those time-serving 
legislators who fawned at the feet of the royal gov- 
ernor. There he first gave evidence of that stamina 
of character which he afterwards so strongly mani- 
fested when called upon to act amid the momentous 
scenes of the Revolution. The Stamp Act aroused the 
energies of his soul to do battle for his country's 
rights, and he was among the first in Maryland who 
lifted up voice and hand against the oppressor. Mr. 
Chase was one of five delegates to the first General 
Congress in 1774, appointed by a convention of the 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 119 

people of Maryland. In the General Congress he was 
bold and energetic and even at that early day he ex- 
pressed his sentiments freely in favor of absolute in- 
dependence. This feeling, however, was not general 
in the colonies, and the people were desirous of recon- 
ciliation by righteous means rather than independence. 
Early in the spring of 1776 he was appointed one of 
the committee, with Dr. Franklin and Charles Carroll, 
to go on a mission to Canada, the chief object of which 
was to effect a concurrence in that province with the 
movements in the other English colonies. Mr. Chase 
gave his vote for the Declaration of Independence 
and signed the instrument with a willing hand. He 
continued a member of Congress until 1778, and was 
almost constantly employed in the duties of most 
important committees. Some of these were of a deli- 
cate and trying nature, yet he never allowed his sensi- 
bility to control his judgment or shake his firmness 
of purpose. In 1796 President Washington nominated 
him a Judge of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, which nomination was confirmed by the Sen- 
ate. He held the office about fifteen years, and no 
man ever stood higher for honesty of purpose and 
integrity of motive than Judge Chase. Notwithstand- 
ing the rancor of such party feeling as dared to charge 
President Washington with appropriating the public 
money to his own private use did all in its power to 
pluck the ermine from his shoulders, yet his purity 
beamed the brighter as the clouds grew darker and 
he lived to hear the last whisper of calumny flit by 
like a bat in the morning twilight. His useful life 
terminated on the nineteenth day of June, 1811, when 
he was in the seventieth year of his age. 

— D, W. Belisle. 



120 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

LAST DAYS OF WILLIAM PACA. 



The inauguration of Smallwood relieved Governor 
Paca for a brief season from the cares of public of- 
fice, and it was probably at this time that the mansion 
at Wye Island was in its greatest glory. With Judge 
John Beale Bordley's model farm at one end and Judge 
Paca's manorial home at the other, Wye Island pre- 
sented a magnificent specimen of American life in the 
times of the Republican Court. There can scarcely 
be imagined a more charming retreat for a man of 
wealth and literary culture, wearied with the burdens 
of public life in such trying times. Its insular position 
ensured just enough of seclusion to secure rest and 
quietude, while the lovely river, navigable almost to 
its sources, afforded a short and pleasant water route 
to Annapolis, or a narrow and safe ferriage to the 
principal lines of land travel. The kindly soil yielded 
in richest abundance every necessary or luxury of 
rural life; the fields and thickets abounded then, as 
now, with game birds in variety to satisfy the sports- 
man or the epicure, while the fox gave ample opportu- 
nity for the gentleman-farmer's favorite recreation. 
The "Narrows" afforded as fine duck shooting as could 
be found anywhere on "the Shore" and the nets, set 
overnight a short distance from the land, were sure 
to supply the breakfast table with the choicest of fish. 

But the stern call of duty had twice called upon 
William Paca to leave all this pleasantness for the 
service of his country, and now a still more inexorable 
voice, which had also twice bidden him relinquish the 
dearest ties of domestic happiness, brought the sum- 
mons which no man may dispute. On the twenty- 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. l2i 

third of October, 1799, he died at Wye Hall, having 
nearly completed his fifty-ninth year. It is pleasant 
to find a man of his position and celebrity crowning 
an active and useful public life with a peaceful and 
happy death. "During his illness he conversed with 
perfect resignation on his approaching dissolution, and 
cheerfully submitted to sickness and death under a 
deep conviction of the unerring wisdom and goodness 
of his Heavenly Father. To the faith and charity of 
a Christian he added the civil virtues of a gentleman. 
Fond as a husband, indulgent as a father, constant 
as a friend and kind as a master." His burial took 
place, not upon the island, but at Wye House, just 
across the Narrows, where the old family burying 
ground was situated. There, beneath a simple mound 
fast sinking to the level of the surrounding earth, rests 
all that w r as mortal of William Paca, twice Governor 
of Maryland, signer of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, and holder successively of three of the highest 
judicial offices in the country. 

—Robert Wilson. 



THE TOWER OF WYE. 



It was near the beginning of autumn, in the year 
of our Lord 1627, when we made our plantation on 
the Isle of Kent, in the great bay of the Chesapeake — 
a time when the wide world was all awry with dangers 
even more than now; whereof we had surely our full 
share in remembrance after so many and frantic dis- 
quiets from picaroons and savage natural heathen in 
the passage of the \ r irginian Sea. 



122 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

Now were we adventurers for long time a little world 
unto ourselves, being compassed on every side by 
desert land or desert water. Seeing us rooted, our 
patron went and came, like a thoughtful overlord, as 
indeed he was, bringing news now from Accomac and 
now from Jamestown, with echoings from over sea, 
which alone would make his visitation a thing to cele- 
brate. In general he stayed but so long as might 
serve for accounting and for inspection of his own 
farmland, its tilth and its yield ; but he made it his 
business to hearten the settlement in one way or 
another every time he came . . . Voyaging thence 
along the deep eastern bight or inward curve of the 
bay, which was in itself a notable great water, we met 
divers wild people there, but had little barter, not- 
withstanding we took with us good store of what they 
most would value and offered the same freely, for they 
were unused to us and shy. Very likely they, too, 
had heard that we were entrappers and devourers. 

We spent the night far off shore for safety, but by 
noon of the morrow came to a good, broad river mouth. 
First therein was a bold inlet, thick with woods; and 
above that a much greater one, dividing the river into 
two thin streams that came together again at the point 
of a long cape like a finger. We were two days in 
going about this, and thought it beyond anything we 
had yet seen, being populated with trustful folk and 
obviously prolific in corn ... So I found myself lord 
of a domain and we sailed away, jesting; for we had 
as yet no fancy what it was to be to us .We called 
it then the Isle of Wye, and the river Wye also, after 
that greater one betwixt England and Wales. The 
name yet endures; I doubt not that it will for many 
and many a day . . . 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 123 

We made our stronghold — a great tower of logs 
with many a loophole — in a grove on the ringer of 
land which ran down from the body of the isle, parting 
the two rivers. It had a vast excavation or cellarage 
for our magazine, most like a cavern, deep and wide, 
with two passages running thence underground, one 
to either shore, great enough to roll an hogshead 
through and lined very deftly in brickwork. This was 
an expedient not heard of before in these waters, but 
which came to me by an old border tale of the Secre- 
tary, and seemed to lit our need, as affording safe 
ingress and irruption with a choice of ways in case 
of beleaguerment. The notion of it had been laboring 
in my head as we sailed. 

We further strengthened that fortalice with pali- 
sades and other outworks, taking heed not to remove 
our screen of leafage Now when all was done our 
enemy would hardly find the tower without guidance, 
nor readily take it after finding; since, though hidden 
so well, it had a good command of both rivers and of 
the open water some way below. 

We called it, as was natural, the Tower of Wye, 
a name ever afterward held, especially in our dear love 
and pride, although in quieter trafficking days York has 
been made to overlay it as the fort decayed and the 
houses thickened above. Ah ! well, that, too, may have 
its term and period. Even now, for all the richness 
of the isle, the little town is melting apart and dwin- 
dling. 

Also, not far above, we made a barrier of earth- 
work and palisades across the island, with but one 
gateway — on the crown of that low bridge — this being 



124 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

curtained before and vigilantly watched behind, where 
a guardhouse was set. 

By the time everything was done and some cabins 
were raised and a few fields broken, the season had 
changed on us to early summer, whereby instead of 
white blooms and violets and those infant-like blue 
flowers that later make a faint frosting of skytint over 
the ground, we had now the first wild roses in the open 
land, purple spikes along the marshes, and in the 
thickets a many of that exquisite bloom which we do 
call the laurel . . . 

Cheery were the days in that our little colony on 
Kent Isle — days of happy junketing and visits between 
neighbors and many a festal eve. Sailed full often 
from the Isle of Wye, unto our gatherings, good friends 
and true, with tidings that still there among them all 
went well. 

That year our cultivation spread far northward into 
the forest, where settler after settler had cut out his 
clearing and made his sturdy home. Never was traffic 
with the coppery folk so promising, a plentitude of fur- 
skins being brought into our hands from every side. 

'Tis true, with St. Mary's beyond the bay we were 
quite openly at war; but that had no meaning now 
beyond petty capture or incursion and reprisals, both 
sides being so alert and well guarded that it seemed 
more like some frivolous and mimic game. 

This lasted not, nor will I dwell upon the ending; 
when, with William Claiborne and his sister and many 
a true friend beside, we sought our strong Tower of 
Wye, standing there for a time desperately at bay; 
then, all availing not, betook us in sore dislodgment 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 125 

and through many grim and eerie hazards to old Eng- 
land once again for few years only. 

Nor boots it to set forth what history has told — 
until at last the swaying and turmoil has come quite 
to a balance . . . and Richard Smith may write out 
freely among all men on this fair level Isle of Kent 
these bedappled memories of olden days, answering 
to no hostile assembly for the plain duty that he did, 
nor driven any more to the woods or the waters for 
refuge, and fearing by night or day no manner of evil. 

— William H. Babcock. 



MARGARET BRENT, LAWYER. 



Margaret Brent, mistress by the gallantry of the 
men of Maryland, who thought when honorable age 
came to an unmarried maiden, then she should be 
dignified with the title of madam. So, then, this Mis- 
tress Brent, was Miss Margaret Brent, sister of Giles 
Brent, sometime Governor of Maryland. Her appear- 
\ ance in the provincial court began in 1642, when she 
made frequent demand of the court to assist her to 
collect her personal debts, but later in its records she 
i is on the dockets as the attorney of the Iyieutenant- 
j Governor, and, as such, was entered on the proceed- 
, ings of the courts and was, therefore, the first woman 
J lawyer in America, and, doubtless, in the world, if 
i we except the lovely Portia. The first case that 
J Mistress Brent conducted for a client was when, armed 
j with a power of attorney from Fulke Brent, she de- 
| manded three thousand pounds of tobacco from Mar- 
I maduke Snow, and the same day had a warrant issued 



126 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

to attach that amount of tobacco in the hands of Wil- 
liam Popes. A few days later Mistress Brent ap- 
peared with a power of attorney from Edward Packer 
and demanded of Robert Kedger four hundred and 
sixty pounds of tobacco. It was, moreover, as the ad- 
ministratrix of Governor Leonard Calvert that the 
woman lawyer of early Maryland obtained her great- 
est historical prominence, and in that capacity she 
frequently appeared in the courts and later invaded 
the General Assembly and demanded the right to vote 
in that body — one vote for herself and one as the rep- 
resentative of Governor Calvert's estate. This claim 
was denied, but in court her standing was never ques- 
tioned, and she was one of the most active practi- 
tioners of her day, her name appearing over and over 
again in cases of interest and importance. In every 
respect Mistress Brent discharged the duties of at- 
torney in cases entrusted to her with that fidelity and 
punctuality that become the members of an arduous 
and responsible profession. 

— Elihu S. Riley. 



MISTRESS BRENT DEMANDS A VOTE. 



The Assembly yet held its meetings, and though she 
was no longer the Proprietor's representative, still was 
she Calvert's attorney and one of the largest land- 
owners in the colony. She who was a week ago the 
head of the government would demand now a voice 
n the Assembly . . . She could see the red light shine 
out in the snow and men, wrapped in long cloaks 
close drawn about their faces, their wide hats pulled 
low, came hurriedly out. There was Thomas Gerard, 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 127 

stately and soldierly; there was Thomas Wair from 
the Potomac ; there was that rank, disaffected Ham- 
mond; there was Richard Preston from his new 
claimed manor on the Patuxent ; there was Giles 
(Brent) ; she knew his quick, firm walk and straight, 
slender figure ; there was her brother-in-law Rogers. 
She rubbed a bigger space with her hot palm on the 
pane and watched them around the curve. She well 
knew where they were going. The sunrise gun had 
sounded, and the gun for the half hour afterward, 
though the morning was too dull toScnow the sun- 
rise save by the hour. They wended their way to the 
fort, in which they would hold the day's session of 
the Assembly. But yesterday she had sat amongst 
them, their honored head; today, to give full edge to 
her bitterness, a heavy step came crunching beneath 
the window. Jock, foreman and holder of property 
upon her estate, was bound thither likewise; he now 
had a right to sit in the sessions and add his voice to 
the vote . . . Down the stair and out the hall she 
made her way with word to none. Outside the icy 
wind caught her and fair whirled her off her feet, but 
Mistress Brent threw back her head and smiled at the 
wintry touch. She was bent on contest, and contest 
with the storm but whetted her humor . . . She put 
her hand upon the buttoned door and without a mo- 
ment's thought was within; nor did she look to right 
or left or heed any curious glances as she undid the 
fastenings from her cloak and slipped the hood from 
her dark, roughened hair. That done, she looked about 
her steadily; one had been speaking who made pause 
at her entry, and in the mute astonishment of the 
Assembly resumed his seat. This was the time for 



128 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

the utterance of those flaming sentences which had 
burned within her all night. 

"Gentlemen," she said firmly, and there was no 
sound in the room save her fresh, clear voice and the 
howling of the wind outside — "gentlemen, I come to 
claim a vote in this Assembly." 

The newly appointed Governor moved anxiously in 
his chair and Giles, after one shrewd glance from face 
to face, turned his keen gaze upon the glowing logs 
at the far end of the room, whose heat scarce took 
the edge from the bitter air, so that the Assemblymen 
sat for the most part with their cloaks about them. 

... "I ventured amongst ye, and no man in the 
colony ventured more, for I staked all I had, and 
whether I have succeeded or lost I leave ye to judge. 
Then by one great loss the questions of your govern- 
ment were forced upon me. How have I met them ? 
Is there a man amongst ye, God knows I say it not 
boastingly, could have done aught more? Did I not 
find the province shaken? Had not my Lord Balti- 
more's authority been disregarded, and the laws ye 
yourselves made set aside for nigh two years? Did 
I not find chaos, rents unpaid, accounts unkept, in- 
vasion of savages threatened and menacing soldiers 
within the town? Ye have seen my accounts, how 
stand they? What did ye say in the letters ye writ 
my Lord Baltimore yesterday? Did ye not say in 
such words, no man of all would so have wrought it? 
And yet, because I am a woman, forsooth, today I 
must stand idly by and have not e'en a voice in the 
framing of your laws, a voice in the making of those 
regulations which shall govern one who is amongst 
the largest of your landowners. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 129 

"Is this justice? I ask in the name of years yet to 
come. Ye have prided yourselves on being the only 
colony within the New World which grants to every 
man the right of worshipping his God as he wisheth. 
Ye boast of your liberty and freedom and are proud 
that ye lead the way in the right, lead it in this like- 
wise, build wisely, grant us justice, and let the woman 
who hath equal risks with ye in this new province 
have an equal voice in the government, else is your 
boasts as empty wind." 

She made impressive pause and Gerard, who fain 
would have seen her success, moved in the next breath 
that the Assembly should vote on this question which 
Mistress Brent had raised. Yet when the question 
had been put to such test, she stood defeated. Giles 
and Gerard moved toward" her, but she put aside all 
sympathy and drew herself proudly erect. "Then," 
she cried, in clear, ringing tones, "I do hereby pro- 
test against all this present Assembly and all its doings 
unless I may be present and have voice as aforesaid." 

— Lucy Meacham Thruston. 



FATE OF ANCIENT RECORDS. 



The Legislature had about this time [1836] 
directed the Executive to cause a search through the 
government buildings with a view to the discovery of 
old state papers and manuscripts which, having been 
consigned time out of mind to neglect and oblivion, 
were known only as heaps of promiscuous lumber 
strewed over the floors of damp cellars and unfre- 
quented garrets. The careless and unappreciative 



130 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

spirit of the proper guardians of our archives in past 
years had suffered many precious folios and separate 
papers to be disposed of as mere rubbish; and the 
not less culpable and incurious indolence of their suc- 
cessors, in our own times, had treated them with 
equal indifference. The attention of the Legislature 
was awakened to the importance of this investigation 
by Mr. David Ridgely, the State Librarian, and he 
was appointed by the Executive to undertake the 
labor. Never did beagle pursue the chase with more 
steady foot than did this eager and laudable cham- 
pion of the awcient fame of the State his chosen duty. 
He rummaged old cuddies, closets, vaults and cock- 
lofts, and pried into every recess of the Chancery, 
Land Office, the committee rooms and the Council 
Chamber searching upstairs and downstains wherever 
a truant paper was supposed to lurk. 

Groping with lantern in hand and body bent, he 
made his way through narrow passages, startling the 
rats from their fastnesses where they had been en- 
trenched for half a century, and breaking down the 
thick drapery — the Gobelin tapestry I might call it — 
woven by successive families of spiders from the days 
of the last Lord Proprietary. The very dust which 
was kicked up in Annapolis, as the old newspapers 
tell us, at the passage of the Stamp Act, was once 
more set in motion by the foot of this resolute and 
unwearied invader, and everywhere something was 
found to reward the toil of the search. But the most 
valuable discoveries were made in the Treasury — 
made, alas, too late for the full fruition of the Li- 
brarian's labor. The Treasury, one of the most ven- 
erable structures in the State, is that lowly and quaint 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 131 

little edifice of brick which the visitor never fails to 
notice within the enclosure of the State House 
grounds. It was originally designed for the accom- 
modation of the Governor and his Council and for the 
sessions of the Upper House of the Provincial Legis- 
lature; the Burgesses at that time holding their 
meetings in the old State House, which occupied the 
site of the present more imposing and capacious 
building, this latter having been erected about the 
year 1772. 

In some dark recess of the Treasury Office, Mr. 
Ridgely struck upon a mine of wealth, in a mouldy 
wooden box which was found to contain many missing 
journals of the Provincial Council, some of which bore 
date as far back as 1666. It was a sad disappointment 
to him when his eye was greeted with the sight of 
these folios to see them crumble like the famed Dead 
Sea apples into powder upon every attempt to handle 
them. The form of the books was preserved and the 
character of the writing distinctly legible, but from 
the effects of moisture the paper had lost its cohesion 
and fell to pieces at every attempt to turn a leaf. I 
was myself a witness to this tantalizing deception, and 
with the Librarian, read enough to show the date and 
character of the perishing records. 

—John Pendleton Kennedy. 



THE CHESAPEAKE. 

Beautiful vision, pure and sweet, 
Child of the sea, fair Chesapeake. 
Thy jeweled hands grasp fragrant lands, 
And clasp them close with silver bands; 



132 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

Thine arms uplift the graceful ships, 

To press them to thy crystal lips; 

Thy sandaled feet perfume the land 

Embroidered by the golden sand; 

Thy brow is crowned by morn with light, 

With coronet of stars by night; 

Thv voice is song in whispering breeze, 

'Tis thunder tone to stormy seas; 

Greets glist'ning sails when homeward bound 

And wafts them off the world around, 

To cleave the waves with snowy wings, 

All ladened deep with precious things; 

For treasures boundless thee are given, 

Child of the sea and ward of heaven. 

The legends love with thee to dwell, 

And to the listening ear oft tell, 

Of pristine days and daring race, 

Of which there's scarce a living trace, 

Save in thy name or mountain stream, 

On story's page a lingering gleam. 

The breakers come to thee from sea, 

And sing along thy shores with glee, 

They lift aloft their briny hands 

In laughing hosts and shouting bands, 

When dying day his garment furls, 

Their snowy crests with harps of pearls 

Sing the songs of the ancient sea, 

And bid me look, O Lord, to Thee. 

— Edwin Hi g gins. 



THE OLD NATIONAL ROAD. 

The old National Road! What a play of romance 

Is called up by the name! and the shadows advance 

From their corners obscure at the back of the stage, 

And evolve into shapes — into. scenes of an age 

Whose sweet graces were too quaint and homely to last, 

And are gone with the roses and rue of the past! 

Let the bard, to the strains of his lyre, frame an ode 

To that Highway of Hope— the old National Road! 



MARYLAND TX PROSE AXD POETRY. 133 

From the sweet-smelling Maryland meadows it crawled, 
Through the forest primeval, o'er hills granite-walled; 
On and up, up and on, till it conquered the crest 
Of the mountains and wound away into the West. 
'Twas the Highway of Hope! and the pilgrims who trod 
It were Lords of the Woodland and Sons of the Sod; 
And the Hope of their Hearts was to win an abode 
At the end — the far end of the National Road. 

The old National Road! It stretched on — ever on — 
Toward that Land where Humanity's vanguard had gone; 
Past the spring on the mountain, the rill in the dale — 
By the rut on the hillside, the Inn in the vale. 
And the beings it loved and the people it knew 
Were untutored and primitive, kindly and true; 
And the face of the mid-summer sun ever glowed 
With a smile for the faithful old National Road. 

From the foot of the mountains still westward it trailed, 
Till the footprints of settlements faltered and — failed; 
Under skies that were blustering, skies that were bland, 
Over turbulent streams that no bridge had e'er spanned 
But the Rainbow of Promise, and ended its quest 
Where the birds and the brooks of Ohio sang "Rest." 
"Equal chances and favors for all!" was the code 
Of the open and honest old National Road. 

The old National Road! In the heat and the cold — 
There the emigrant's canvas-topped vehicle rolled; 
'Twas a great Conestoga — its wheels groaning sore 
Of the journey they made and the burden they bore. 
Uncomplaining the lank oxen swaggered and swung, 
Under yoke, at the sides of the tetering tongue; 
And the family cow, poor and patient, was towed 
At the end of a rope — clown the National Road. 

— Ohio Magazine. 



134 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



MAY AT BUENA VISTA. 

(February 22-23, 1847.) 
Ride! May! — To Buena Vista! for the Lancers gain our rear, 
And we have few troops there to check their vehement career. 
And May comes charging from the hills with his ranks of 

flaming steel 
While, shattered with a sudden fire, the foe already reel; 
They flee amain! — Now to the left, to stay the torrent there, 
Or else the day is surely lost, in horror and despair! , 
For their hosts pour swiftly onward, like a river in the spring, 
Our flank is turned, and on the left their cannon thundering. 
Now, good Artillery! bold Dragoons! Steady, brave hearts, 

be calm! 
Through rain, cold hail, and thunder, now nerve each gallant 

arm. 
What though their shot fall round us here, yet thicker than 

the hail? 
We'll stand against them, as the rock stands firm against the 

gale. 
Lo! their battery is silenced; but our iron sleet still showers; 
They falter, halt, retreat — Hurrah, the glorious day is ours! 

— Albert Pike. 



THE BURIAL OF RINGGOLD. 

We've mournfully laid him where Bravo's rude wave 
Will murmur a dirge as it sweeps by his grave; 
The wild prairie-flower, that blooms o'er his head, 
Js v/et with the tears that stern warriors shed; 
And sadly we'll turn from the tomb of the slain, 
And vengeance shall waken our war-cry again. 

Ye men of Columbia! whose forefathers bled 

On the proud field of fame where Washington led, 

Their blood through our bosoms unsullied doth run, 

Then firmly we'll grasp every sabre and gun, 

As sternly we turn from the tomb of the slain, 

And vengeance awakens our war-cry again. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 135 

O'er the grave of our hero we solemnly stand 
And swear by the love of our dear native land, 
To nerve every arm, that the Spaniard may feel 
On his cowering head the full weight of our steel, 
As sternly we turn from the tomb of the slain, 
And vengeance awakens our war-cry again. 

Farewell to thee, hero! sad Maryland's son! 

Oh, soft be thy slumbers! the battle is won; 

Thy proud steed is prostrate and bath'd in his gore, 

The loud-pealing cannon shall rouse ye no more; 

Now sternly we turn from the tomb of the slain, 

And vengeance shall waken our war-cry again. 

— George Yellott. 



MONODY 

On Herman S. Thomas, w'ho fell at Monterey. 

Hark! the roll of the muffled drum 

Mournfully on the ear! 
The soldiers' measured march! as they come 

Bearing a warrior's bier. 

When bold hearts dar'd the battle's storm 

On heights of Monterey, 
In the foremost ranks that stalwart form 

Stood sternly 'mid the fray. 

Though Freedom's starry banner then 

O'er heroes' heads did wave. 
He stood 'mid the hosts of gallant men, 

"The bravest of the brave." 

When, with fierce warrior's battle zeal 

The serried ranks rush'd on, 
He fell in the front, where flash'd his steel, 

As the dark heights were won. 



136 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



Farewell! but o'er thy soldier's grave 

Death grimly brings no gloom; 

There Glory's laurel shall proudly wave 

In ever bright'ning bloom. 

— George Yellott. 

[Herman S. Thomas was a native of Harford county, Mary- 
land. When the war with Mexico broke out he applied for 
a commission, but failing to obtain it he joined the Texan 
Rangers as a private, and fell sword in hand while storming 
the heights around Monterey, far in advance of his com- 
pany. The author was long and intimately acquainted with 
him. Quiet and unassuming in his manners, there never 
lived a man of more dauntless courage or of nobler impulses.] 



AN OLD-TIME MARYLAND SCHOOL [1838]. 



The school was but a quarter of a mile distant 
from home ; but to our childish fancies it was so far 
that mother gratified us by putting up our dinners 
in a little basket. There was some nicely fried 
chicken on a little plate ; then eight or ten large 
Maryland biscuit; then, nestling on one side care- 
fully, a cup of nice, clear, strained honey, with paper 
tied over it to prevent spilling in case of accident ; 
and a knife and spoon, topped off with three large 
gingercakes ; and over all was tucked a snowy napkin. 
Only big Sister Retta could be entrusted with that 
precious basket, and Emma and I cast many interested 
glances towards it as, hand in hand, and bearing the 
books, slates and inkstand, with goose quills to make 
pens, we proudly marched along the winding highway, 
under the leafless branches of the great white oaks 
which bordered the farther side. 

i\t last with a gathering group of expectant chil- 
dren, and youth of from five to twenty-one years of 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 137 

age, we stood before the open door of the new school- 
house. Not that the word new describes the house ; 
very far from it ; but the school was new. The school- 
master was a new arrival in the neighborhood, and the 
house was newly and for the first time used for so 
noble a purpose. Will the reader believe it? The 
house was really a deserted negro cabin, that stood by 
the highway side, near Townsend's Cross Roads, three 
miles from Denton, the county town. For an area of 
twenty-five square miles between that town and the 
Delaware line, this was the only school, and this was 
started by a private subscription managed by my 
father. The Maryland law, at that time, liberally pro- 
vided that if the people of a neighborhood would sub- 
scribe for the tuition of twelve scholars at five dollars 
each, then the State would furnish a like amount for 
the education of the same number of "charity scholars." 
There were no public provisions for school houses, 
and whether there was house or school, depended al- 
together upon the character of the population that, 
amid rural mutations, might happen to gather in any 
given neighborhood. 

This new school and every school in that region for 
several years, was in a rented house. This particular 
house was built of logs, the interstices being filled with 
clay to keep out wind and rain. It was eighteen or 
twenty feet square, and about eight feet to the eaves ; 
with a door front and back, each opening outwards. 
Midway between the doors and the north end where 
stood the chimney, at a convenient heighth, part of a 
log was sawed out, the aperture being filled with a 
three-light hanging window, which, as occasion re- 
quired, could be propped up for ventilation. 



138 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

Where the chimney stood was an aperture six feet 
wide and four feet high, into which the stone and mud 
walls of the fire-place were built to a heighth above 
where the blaze of the great log fire would usually 
reach ; and above that point the flue was made of logs 
and sticks, liberally daubed within of clay. Though 
not one of the wonders of the world like the "Tower of 
Pisa" this chimney had yielded to northerly attractions 
until its centre of gravity had become endangered ; and 
its former sable proprietor had prudently interposed 
the safeguard of a stout prop, thus holding the dis- 
couraged chimney to the performance of its duty. At 
the south end of the house, in order to adapt it to its 
use as a literary institution, almost an entire log had 
been removed. This aperture was covered by a wide 
board, fastened by hinges to the log above, and secured 
to that below by staple and hook. Like the sash be- 
fore mentioned, this board was propped up to admit' 
needed light and fresh air. Just below this aperture 
was the writing desk, extending across the room 
against the wall. Here, alternately, the girls and boys 
made pot hooks and hangers with their goose quill 
pens, after the pattern set by the teacher; and finally 
graduated t to the distinguished accomplishment of 
being able to draw a note of hand or receipt for ten 
dollars, good and lawful money of the United States of 
America^ and to affix thereto their own real, written 
signatures. The teacher "set the copies" during the 
noon hour; but made and mended pens at all hours, 
when they happened to be presented for that purpose. 
Hence the name still so commonly applied to the 
pocketknife. It was not unusual to see the teacher 
dividing his time and attention between a page of 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 139 

Comly's spelling-book, where some sweating pupil was 
painfully struggling with the problems of orthography, 
and the quill he was slitting and whittling, meanwhile 
stealing an occasional moment for a furtive glance 
about the schoolroom, to see that there was no pinch- 
ing or pin-sticking or snickering behind books or slates 
going on among the unruly urchins. 

In addition to the so-called writing-desk, the furni- 
ture of this schoolroom consisted of a desk and chair 
for the teacher, and three or four slab benches across 
the end of the room, next the writing-desk. In cold 
weather a bench was set near the great fire-place, and 
was occupied by alternate platoons of the shivering 
scholars to thaw themselves out. Three formidable 
hickory rods, of varying size and length, adapted to the 
sex and size of the culprits ; and a pretty, little, red 
maple switch, suited to the esthetic tastes and tender 
sensibilities of the smaller urchins, completed the out- 
fit. The entire curriculum of our school was covered 
by the three cabalistic letters, R., R., R., understood to 
represent the three great sciences, Readin', Ritin' and 
'Rithmetic. The three G's, Grammar, Geography and 
Geometry, had then scarcely been dreamed of as ever 
possible to be taught in a country school. It was not 
until several years after — not indeed until the re- 
nowned Chinquepin schoolhouse had been built, over a 
mile away, on the road to Punch Hall, that we ever 
heard of such a study as English Grammar or Geo- 
graphy. The primer, or rather a primer — for it mat- 
tered not what it was, so long as there were A, B, C's 
in it — was the text-book most in demand at Mr. Mar- 
shall's log cabin school. 

— Rev. Robert W. Todd, D. D. 



140 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

. MARYLAND "DISTRICT SCHOOL" IN WINTER. 



Shades of the "Grand old Masters, " 

Spooks of the "Bards Sublime," 
Come from the shadowy shadows 

To these modern halls of time, 
And teach a weary mortal 

Some new, stupendous .rules — 
Some grand and sure specific 

For teaching "Winter Schools." 

When boys, from the six-year-olders 

To boys with mustachios, 
And girls in long-sleeved aprons 

To girls with bangs and bows (and beaux), 
Are crowded, a mixed menagerie — 

A sort of human "zoo," 
Of various grades and tempers, 

And various things they know — (and don't. know, mostly 
don't know). 

And each must have the lessons 

That fill the busy day; 
Even the little sinners 

That only want to play. 
Ah! the hundred and one devices 

To keep them all in tune 
Would fill the mystic measures 

Of a Scandinavian rune, 

And puzzle the "Grand old Masters," 

And vex the ' xjards Sublime," 
Till genius scarce could mutter 

A solitary rhyme! 
Oh! teaching school in autumn 

Is not the worst of work; 
And teaching school in springtime 

Doth not the soul so irk; 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 141 



But spare me from the winter, 

The winter, cold and drear, 
And its multifarious gathering 

Of children far and near. 
And the old forgotten precepts 

1 taught a year ago, 
Come back, a weary reflux 

Of lessons dull and slow, 

January, 1885. — Amanda Elizabeth Dennis. 



STEADFASTNESS OF CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY. 



It was, I was about to say, the sad mischance — but, 
in a higher though more painful sense, the privilege 
and fortune — of Chief Justice Taney to fill his place in 
times of revolution and unparalleled convulsion — when 
blood boiled in the veins' of brethren, till it was red 
upon a million hands. In such a crisis, no man so con- 
spicuous as he, and yet so bound *o shun the rancor of 
the strife, could hope for freedom from distrust and 
challenge. A soul, brave and tenacious as his was — so 
sensitive to duty, and so resolute to do it — provoked 
injustice not to be appeased, and dared reproaches 
which he might not answer. His constitutional 
opinions were already part of the recorded jurispru- 
dence of the country, and he could not change them 
because the tempest was howling. It was the convic- 
tion of his life that the government under which we 
live was of limited powers, and that its constitution 
had been framed for war as well as peace. Though he 
died, therefore, he could not surrender that conviction 
at the call of the trumpet. He had plighted his troth 
to the liberty of the citizen and the supremacy of the 
laws, and no man could put them asunder. Whatever 



142 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

might be the right of the people to change their gov- 
ernment, or overthrow it, he believed that the duty of 
the judges was simply to maintain the constitution, 
while it lasted, and, if need were, defend it to the death. 
He knew himself its minister and servant only — not its 
master — commissioned to obey and not to alter. He 
stood therefore in the very rush of the torrent, and, as 
he was immovable, it swept over him. He had lived a 
life so stainless that to question his integrity was 
enough to beggar the resources of falsehood and make 
even shamelessness ashamed. He had given lustre and 
authority, by his wisdom and learning, to the judg- 
ments of the supreme tribunal, and had presided over 
its deliberations with a dignity, impartiality and 
courtesy which elevated even the administration of 
justice. Every year of his labors had increased the 
respect and affection of his brethren and heightened the 
confidence and admiration of the profession which 
looked up to him as worthily its chief. And yet he 
died, traduced and ostracized, and his image was with- 
held from its place in the chamber which was filled 
already with his fame. 

Against all this, the State of Maryland here registers 
her protest in the living bronze. She records it in no 
spirit of resentment or even of contention, but silently 
and proudly — as her illustrious son, without a word, 
committed his reputation to the justice of his country- 
men. Nor doubts she of the answer that posterity will 
make to her appeal. Already the grateful manhood of 
the people has begun to vindicate itself and him. Al- 
ready among those whose passion did him wrong the 
voices of the most eminent and worthy have been 
lifted, in confession of their own injustice and in manly 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 143 

homage to his greatness and his virtues. Already the 
waters of the torrent have nearly spent their force and 
high above them, as they fall, unstained by their pollu- 
tion and unshaken by their rage, stands where it stood, 
in grand and reverend simplicity, the august figure of 
the Great Chief Justice ! —Severn Teackle Wallis. 



ON THE CHESAPEAKE BAY. 

I love to gaze upon the expansive bay, 
And watch the lingering, rosy light of day, 
Now o'er the deep blue waters slowly fade — 
But yonder sail, in glittering pride arrayed, 
Still long retains the glow of parting day — 
Where sky and billows blend — they float away 
As some huge snowy bird, of life possess'd, 
They fearless skim o'er ocean's heaving breast. 
On thy low shores, an inland sea widespread, 
Flock feathered tribes, by wondrous instinct led, 
Innumerous as the stars of yonder sky, 
They sweep the wave and on its surface lie! 
As rolling chariots sound their winged flight, 
When swift from stunned ear, and aching sight, 
They speed through air and mock the random shot. 
Behold around the wide and level spot 
Where fresh the sea reviving breezes blow, 
And branching wide, the tufted cedars bow 
Before the storm that loudly wakes the deep, 
And surging waves that dash around the steep. 
As if in chorus fierce, earth and heaven joined, 
Whilst solemn echoes shake the trembling ground, 
Hark! the full, deep-toned bass, as thunders loud 
From rolling seas and lofty pines, wild sound — 
Alone, in wintry storms I sought thy shore! 
And often heard the wild, tempestuous roar. 
But calm and sweet, as depth of heaven's own blue, 
Oft at even's hour appeared thine azure hue. 

— Mrs. E. W. Foot? Checves. 



144 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

WAR IN THE VALLEY OF CATOCTIN. 



The sun was beaming with all his splendor upon 
the fertile fields of the Valley of the Catoctin. It 
was an ideal day in September and, but for the long 
lines of blue marching up from Middletown, one would 
not have thought that war was in the air. Alice came 
out of a bit of woodland and, mounting a great rock, 
looked over the scene below. She saw the whitened 
spires of Middletown glistening like upright spear 
points in the sun. Her bonnet had fallen from her 
head and her dark hair was streaming over her shoul- 
ders, a plaything for the wanton wind. 

"It is war !" cried the young girl, pressing her hands 
to her forehead as if in agony. "They will surely meet 
on the mountain. The men in gray are behind me 
and yonder come the hosts in blue — their foes. God 
pity the brave souls who shall this day of days go 
down in battle. Oh, if this war could have been 
averted ! but no ! There is some great design in it 
all." 

Just then a footstep sounded behind the girl on the 
rock, and she turned to face the old mountain witch, 
who had stolen upon her unperceived. 

"What seest thou, child?" asked the old woman. 

Alice, without reply, pointed to the sight in the 
lovely valley. 

"You can see as well as I," she said at last. 

The woman craned her neck forward and, shading 
her eyes with a pair of scrawny hands, gazed for a 
moment upon the marching regiments. 

"The sword of the Lord and of Gideon !" she ex- 
claimed in her shrill tones. "They are going to slay 



, 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 145 



each other in the mountain passes. The rocks shall 

become red and the hares shall flee affrighted from the 

wheels of the great guns." 
5 "Then I must return," said the girl, drawing back. 

"I can remain here no longer." 

"Wait, child," and the hand of Mother Grossnickle 
** seized the fair watcher's arm. "Look at the sight. 
1 See how the army spreads over the Vale of Catoctin. 

This is war, girl ! Yonder churches will soon be filled 

with the flotsam and jetsam of battle; men will die 
I where hundreds have been born anew ; their blood 
S will drench the sacred altars of the Most High God. 

This is war ! Look again, child. See how yonder 
^ banners wave. Tomorrow they will be rent with 
i shot and shell. Perhaps yet today. And I shall go 

abroad over the field and laugh at the agonies of the 
* enemy." 

) "No more ! no more !" cried Alice, springing from 
U the rock. "I will not listen. I have seen and heard 

enough. My heart is with the men down yonder — 

the men in blue. If my captain falls, then my heart is 
I dead !" 

With this the mountain girl bounded away, running 
! like a startled fawn through the bushes, while the old 
; j witch, with a swift look after her, turned slowly and 
k watched McClellan's army, whose burnished weapons 
1 reflected back the warm beams which the sun in his 
■ effulgence was casting into the region of the historic 

Catoctin. 

-T. C. Harbaugh. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 
MARYLAND, MY MARYLAND. 

The despot's heel is on thy shore, 

Maryland! 
His torch is at thy temple door, 

Maryland! 
Avenge the patriotic gore 
That flecked the streets of Baltimore, 
And be the battle queen of yore, 

Maryland! My Maryland! 

Hark to a wand'ring son's appeal, 

Maryland! 
My mother State! to thee I kneel, 

Maryland! 
For life and death, for woe and weal, 
Thy peerless chivalry reveal, 
And gird thy beauteous limbs with steel, 
Maryland! My Maryland! 

Thou wilt not cower in the dust, 

Maryland! 
Thy beaming sword shall never rust, 

Maryland! 
Remember Carroll's sacred trust, 
Remember Howard's warlike thrust — 
And all thy slumberers with the just, 
Maryland! My Maryland! 

Come! 'tis the red dawn of the day, 

Maryland! 
Come with thy panoplied array, 

Maryland! 
With Ringgold's spirit for the fray, 
With Watson's blood at Monterey, 
With fearless Lowe and dashing May, 
Maryland! My Maryland! 






MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 147 

Come! for thy shield is bright and strong, 

Maryland! 
Come! for thy dalliance does thee wrong, 

Maryland! 
Come to thine own heroic throng, 
That stalks with liberty along, 
And gives a new Key to thy song, 
Maryland! My Maryland! 

Dear Mother! burst the tyrant's chain, 

Maryland! 
Virginia should not call in vain, 

Maryland! 
She meets her sisters on the plain — 
"Sic semper!" 'tis the proud refrain 
That baffles minions back again, 

Maryland! My Maryland! 

I see the blush upon thy cheek, 

Maryland! 
But thou wast ever bravely meek, 

Maryland! 
But lo! there surges forth a shriek 
From hill to hill, from creek to creek — 
Potomac calls to Chesapeake, 

Maryland! My Maryland! 

Thou wilt not yield the Vandal toll, 

Maryland! 
Thou wilt not crook to his control, 

Maryland! 
Better the fire upon thee roll, 
Better the blade, the shot, the bowl, 
Than crucifixion of thy soul, 

Maryland! My Maryland! 



148 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

I hear the distant thunder hum, 

Maryland! 
The Old Line's bugle, fife and drum, 

Maryland! 
She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb — 
Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum! 
She breathes! she burns! she'll come! she'll come! 
Maryland ! My Maryland ! 

— James Ryder Randall. 






BARBARA FRIETCHIE. 

Up from the meadows rich with corn, 
Clear in the cool September morn, 

The clustering spires of Frederick stand 
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland. 

Round about them orchards sweep, 
Apple and peach-tree fruited deep. 

Fair as a garden of the Lord 

To the eyes of the famished rebel horde. 

On that pleasant morn of the early fall 
When Lee marched over the mountain wal' 

Over the mountains, winding down 
Horse and foot into Frederick town. 

Forty flags with their silver stars, 
Forty flags with their crimson bars, 

Flapped in the morning wind; the sun 
Of noon looked down and saw not one. 

Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then, 
Bowed with her threescore years and ten; 

Bravest of all in Frederick town, 

She took up the flag the men hauled down; 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 149 

In her attic window the staff she set. 
To show that one heart was loyal yet. 

Up the street came the rebel tread, 
Stonewall Jackson riding ahead. 

Under his slouched hat left and right 
Pie glanced; the old flag met his sight. 

"Halt!" — the dust-brown ranks stood fast; 
"Fire!" — out blazed the rifle-blast. 

It shriveled the window, pane and sash; 
It rent the banner with seam and gash. 

Quick as it fell, from the broken staff 
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf; 

She leaned far out on the window-sill, 
And shook it forth with a royal will. 

"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, 
But spare your country's flag," she said. 

A shade of sadness, a blush of shame, 
Over the face of the leader came; 

The nobler nature within him stirred 
To life at that woman's deed and word. 

"Who touches a hair of yon gray head 
Dies like a dog! March on!" he said. 

All day long through Frederick street 
Sounded the tread of marching feet; 

All day long that free flag tost 
Over the heads of the rebel host. 

Ever its torn folds rose and fell 

On the loyal winds that loved it well; 

And through the hill-gaps sunset light 
Shone over it with a warm good-night, 



150 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er, 

And the rebel rides on his raids no more. 

Honor to her! And let a tear 

Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier. 

Over Barbara Frietchie's grave, 
Flag of Freedom and Union, wave! 

Peace and order and beauty draw 
Round thy symbol of life and law; 



And ever the stars above look down 
On thy stars below in Frederick town. 

— John Greenleaf Whittier. 



1 



JACKSON IN FREDERICK. 



To many people Barbara Frietchie and her flag are 
all that there is of Frederick, and I would not willingly 
play iconoclast to one of the few picturesque figures 
in our country's annals. But, although Barbara was 
quite capable of confronting a hostile host, the fact 
remains that "On that pleasant morn in the early 
fall" the Confederate army did not pass her house 
at all. Stonewall Jackson, thinking to call on his 
friends, the Presbyterian pastor and his wife, passed 
up Second street to the parsonage, but finding that 
he could not see them he wrote in his saddle a line 
of greeting, casually noting the hour under his name. 
Thus we know that at 5 A. M. he was leading his 
gray columns through a narrow way to the pike, leav- 
ing the creek and several houses between himself and 
the cottage of the old woman of whom he never heard, 
but whose name will forever be coupled with his own. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 151 

The day before the battle of South Mountain the 
Union troops did pass Barbara's house and the de- 
lighted old woman stood at the door, smiling and 
waving her little flag. General Reno, attracted by the 
venerable figure, stopped and asked her age. "Ninety- 
six." "Three cheers for ninety-six," he called, and 
so rode on to his death. 

—Mrs. Sara Andrew Shafer. 



A-FIGHTIN' WITH COLE. 

That hoss! Why, yes, he's the knowin'est mind; 

He knows Decoration an' Fourth of July. 
An' w'enever the bugles, or things of that kind, 

Comes 'round both his head an' His tail git up high, 
An' he goes cavortin' in a way that'll win ye; 

He knows the music. Why, Lord bless your soul! 
We was together down there in Virginia; 

Down in the Valley a-fightin' with Cole. 

Ain't worth nothin'? No; he's too old for the plow, 

Or the carriage, or such like. Just do for the boys, 
The young ones, to climb on. That's all that he now 

Amounts to, 'cept prancin' around at the noise 
Of music an' guns. Would I sell him? Why, no; 

No man's thousand dollars will ever come nigh him. 
While I've got a spot where that old hoss kin go 

No fellow's got money enough to buy him. 

Never heerd tell of Cole's fightin' battalion, 

Maryland cavalry? Well, now, I declare! 
We went in together, me an' that stallion, 

Right from the farm — a lively young pair. 
All through the Rebellion together we scouted, 

At Winchester, Leesburg, Loudoun, a whole 
Grist of fights, where sometimes we won — or was routed- 

Down in the Valley a-fightin' with Cole. 



152 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

We both belonged to blue-blood a'istoc'acy, 

An' inclined to be wild, then, was Lion an' me, 
So we skipped from our home here on the Monocacy 

An' went in the fight for the flag of the free. 
Excitement! We got enough. Mahy's the close call 

We had. Why, the thought even now takes my breath. 
Me an' that hoss, we went plumb through it all 

An' came out all right from that cyclone of death. 
The swish an' the swash an' the jinglin' of spurs, 

The clang of the sabers, the carbine's dull rattle; 
The rush an' the crush when the fierce charge occurs; 

The mad, wild excitement of bloodshed an' battle; 
The scout an' the bivouac, the long raid — what's in ye 

Shows up when alone on a midnight patrol; 
An' they showed they was men that was down in Virginia; 

Down in the Valley a-fightin' with Cole. 
Once, worn out, we stopped by the roadside a-sportin' 

An' I went to sleep. I woke with a cry; 
That hoss was a-lickin' my face an' a-snortin'; 

The boys had rode on an' the rebels was nigh. 
I jumped in the saddle an' he was so glib he 

Dashed off 'fore I fairly got fixed in my seat; 
He knowed that for me it were leg it or Libby, 

An' he knowed how to. dust when we had to retreat. 
Yes, we was together a-scootin' an' scoutin'; 

Sometimes we was comin', sometimes we was goin'. 
One day it was Mosby's men doin' the routin', 

Another to us their heels they was showin'; 
Dashin' an' fightin', you bet we was down there. 

Me an' old Lion went in heart an' soul, 
Ripe for the chase, charge or scrimmage we foun' there, 

Down in the Valley a-fightin' with Cole. 

One day up at Winchester we got surrounded; 

The Johnnies was thick an' they charged like a storm; 
Minie-balls whistled an' big hoss-guns pounded; 

We had to hustle; you bet it was warm. 
Three comes right at us, when Lion, he wheels, 

Gits on his hindlegs an' paws, then comes down; 
One I shot while he let fly with his heels, 

Then we scooted off out of Winchester town. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 153 



There is the mark of the bullet that caught him, 

Right on the flank, as we galloped away. 
The rebs tried to down him, but they never come nigh him, 

For he wasn't born to be killed by the gray. 
Why, stranger, for truth I have nothin' to say, 

But you can't git that boss to save your soul; 
Why, we was together down there in Virginia, 

Down in the Valley a-fightin' with Cole. 

— Harry J. Shellman. 



HENRY WINTER DAVIS. 



Mr. Davis conned his books as jealously as a miner 
searching for gold, and had not left a panful of earth 
unwashed. He had collected the poorest ore of truth 
and the richest comments of thought until he was 
able to crown himself with knowledge. Blessed with 
a felicitous power of analysis and a prodigious mem- 
ory, he ransacked history, ancient and modern sciences, 
empirical and metaphysical ; arts, mechanical and lib- 
eral ; professional, law, divinity and medicine; poetry 
and the miscellanies of literature ; and in these great 
departments of human lore he moved as easily as most 
men do in their particular province. His habit was 
not only to read, but to re-read the best of his books 
frequently, and he was continually supplying himself 
with better editions of his favorites. In current, play- 
ful conversation with his friends he quoted right and 
left, in brief and at length, from the classics, ancient 
and modern ; and from the drama, tragic and comic. 
In his speeches, on the contrary, he quoted but little, 
and only when he seemed to run upon a thought al- 
ready expressed by someone else with singular force 



154 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

and appositeness. He was the best scholar I ever 
met for his years and active life and was surpassed 
by very few. His thesaurus was his head. At the 
time of his death he filled a high position at the bar, 
and was chosen to lead against the most distinguished 
of his brethren. On public and constitutional ques- 
tions, as distinguished from those only involving pri- 
vate rights, he was a host, and in the argument of cases 
which grew out of the adoption of the new constitu- 
tion of Maryland he won golden laurels, and drew 
extraordinary encomiums even from his opponents 
in that angry litigation. He was thoroughly read in the 
decisions of the federal courts, and especially in those 
defining constitutional principles. 

Possessed of a mind of remarkable power, scope, 
and activity, with an immense fund of precious infor- 
mation ready to respond to any call he might make 
upon it, however sudden; wielding a system of logic 
formed in the severest school, and tried by long prac- 
tice; gifted with a rare command of language and elo- 
quence wellnigh super-human; and withal graced 
with manners the most accomplished and refined, and 
a person unusually handsome, graceful and attractive, 
Mr. Davis entered public life with almost unparalleled 
advantages. Having boldly presented himself before 
the most rigorous tribunal in the world, he proved 
himself worthy of its favor and attention. He soon 
rose to the front rank of debaters, and whenever he 
addressed the House all sides gave him delighted 
audience. 

—John A. J. Creswell. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 155 

IDEAL OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT. 



Maryland may be said to have originated the Ameri- 
can idea of civil and religious liberty, which renders 
this Government and this Union distinct from all past 
and present nations, and which renders and has ren- 
dered this land the haven, the home and the sanctuary 
of the oppressed of all nations. 

Take away from the American system of govern- 
ment this ideal of civil and religious liberty which is 
the cornerstone of the edifice, and the entire fabric 
would topple into the ruin of anarchy and desolation. 
The Union without this would lose all that commends 
it to the admiration of humanity. 

That the inspiration of the Charter of Maryland, as 
well as the example of the Assembly of Maryland — 
the first one held after the Colonial Government was 
thrown off — in adopting a Bill of Rights which be- 
stowed equal rights on all of the inhabitants of the 
State, was felt in the framing of the Declaration of 
Independence and subsequently in the construction of 
the Constitution of the United States cannot well 
be disputed by any impartial student of American 
history. It may be said, indeed, that Marylanders 
have not written enough on this point in the face of 
the fact that the disciples of the New England cult 
would have the world at large believe that the insti- 
tutions of this country were not only founded, framed, 
1 established and defended by the inhabitants of that 
section of the United States, but that they would not 
be in existence at this day but for that section. While 
it is an indisputable fact that New England played a 
considerable and honorable part in the founding and 



156 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

the development of our institutions, it cannot be 
claimed that it did all of the founding and the develop- 
ment. 

As no other Colony can claim the ideal of perfect 
liberty as its own except Maryland, it is logical that 
to Maryland belongs the credit of having given that 
ideal to the United States, an ideal which has done 
more to draw the immigrant to our shores and to 
build up this country than any other which has been 
devised, conceived or put into practice in this land. 
Without the immigrant this country would be still 
in the main, aboriginal, despite all that may be said 
to the contrary. None of the other great ideals would 
have drawn a tithe of the people of Europe to our 
shores. 

—Denis J. Scully. 



TIME AND TO SPARE IN ANCIENT QUEEN ANNE'S. 
Written for Frederic Emory, of "Blaclcbeard" May 27, 1898. 

Once there was time and to spare in ancient Queen Anne's; 
For the settler had settled, built was his house of hewn logs; 
Cleared was his land, strong stored in strength the sleeping 

centuries had given, 
That quick it would answer to planting with riotous crops; 
And teeming with game were the woods; while fish and 

shell-fish 
And terrapin, too, filled fatly the circumconfluent creeks; 
And dotted with sails were the waters of broad-flowing 

Chester; 
And neighbors were neighbors then, coming and going 

apace, 
And rich was real wealth and — Time, there was Time and 

to spare. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 157 

But restless is life and the ocean of work in the world 
Ever spreads with the oncoming years in a Christian land; 
-And Destiny urged, and the conquering strain in our Eng- 
lish blood led; 
I So some moved out West; but others remained here as 

farmers. 
\ Richer the fields of the West than were those of our home; 
\Greater the scope paying toll there to hamlet and prosper- 
ous town. 
So founded out there were factories many, and businesses 
manifold flourished, 
( And here and there grew nerve-wearing efforts for the idol 
of cash, 
And Easy Old Times were banished and Work — there was 
Work and to spare. 

Hurry incessant was born and persisted with militant force; 
"Rush" was the word and the lash that drove and still 

drives 
With a generally comfortless scourge the normal American 
man, 
i And lost was the sweet working life that was mellow, 

colonial. 
'Gardens of comforting work were the old fields of thought 
And of planting; so sweet and fruitful were they that again 
Has the modern work-world sought them out and belauded 
|, them. 

Nay! has invaded and won and now wears and blesses them, 
^And finds there is Time for Life's sake — and for Work, 
and to spare. 

Thus have I told what of old there was to your knowledge, 

Then of what happened to banish an Eden of Life. 

And you! you are building the Old in the New, the New 

kas of Old. 
ong may our county, this kindly Queen Anne's, give you 

rest; 
•Jnd "Blackbeard," may it bloom and give fruit like another 

"Bloomfield," 
'While broad-flowing Chester shall flow to the Bay past 

your home, 
IA bright vision of peace, bearing message in ripple and 

.sail, 
£That here there's sweet mixing of Work and of Time — 

and to spare. -DeCourcy W. Thorn. 



58 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

OLD QUEENSTOWN. 



Captain Henderson, riding back from Kent Island, 
halted at Queenstown for the night with his weary 
men. He was well acquainted with the little old vil- 
lage, the county town of long ago, from its one square 
church tower to the steep, wheelworn, bare hillside 
beyond the landing, with the drooping willow beside 
it. But he did not linger for old acquaintance' sake. 

This was a favorite lounging place for tradition. 
Elder memories hung about it — Indian, Colonial, Rev- 
olutionary and of the second English war. Yonder 
oak in the outskirts overshadowed the grave of an 
Indian chief, disturbed inconsiderately for the sake of ' 
his glossy, black war-hatchet and pipe bowl, which 
he had vainly hoped to keep by him for enjoyment in 
another world. On yonder slope the British boy-cap- 
tain was shot out of his saddle from an ambuscade, 
and his cavalrymen carried him back from the "battle 
of Queenstown," with little further skirmishing, to 
their camp beside the early Colonial Kent Island 
church that they had turned into a stable, so ending 
the only invasion of the mainland of Queen Anne's 
county in any war. 

— William H. Babcock. 



CLAIBORNE. 

«* 

The long, lower tongue of Kent Island, with a wide- 
winged, antiquated brick house on it, lay warm and 
level in the broad glint of the bay. In far earlier 
times — for the first settlement of all this region was 
made on the "Isle of Kent" — the name of Kent Fort « 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 159 

Manor had been given, along with the grant from the 

I Lord Proprietary or the Crown, and it clings even 

v yet. The land of the "Manor" is mainly open, but 

with a tuft of pines at the point and almost a forest 

well above, where the island widens. You can see by 

t a map that there is a considerable area. 

It is a place for dreams of old romance, figures out 

J of the past that dimly come and go — Puritans, Jesuits 

.and sea-rovers, painted "Kings of the Mattapeakes," 

cattle reivers banqueting in "hugger mugger," as old 

writings tell us, under the pine-tree shadows, the armed 

1 island pinnace putting forth to do battle against Lord 

\\ Baltimore with young RatclirT Warren in command, 

T first victim of American civil war. 

That was the beginning of a long struggle which 
* has grown almost mythical with, lapse of years, and 
v their greater happenings, yet leaves to us one figure 
St of strong and salient outlines — "Claiborne the rebel," 
i a fanatic in his own cause, wonderfully versatile in 
expedient, vehement, aggressive, tenacious, and, above 
pll, unforgetting. 

The fight went not all against him, though it ended 
so. He repeatedly gained possession of his island, 
which he claimed both by prior settlement and earlier 
grant. Once, at least, with allies, he seized also on 
the mainland, driving the Calverts quite over into Vir- 
ginia. It did not last, but his Protestant friends were 
!soon up again, fighting the small, decisive battle of 
Annapolis, and Parliament soon placed him in control 
again. Only the Restoration and the siding of King 
Charles with Lord Baltimore brought final discom- 
fiture and despair. 

— William H. Babcock. 



160 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



THE VALE OF DULANY. 

. . . And thou, 
My native vale, hath ever been unsung, 
Yet may thy beauties vie with those whose names 
Are blazon'd forth by fame's obstreperous trump, 
As may the gem, that sparkles 'neath the deep, 
Unknown to aught save sylphs' delighted gaze, 
With that which glitters on the lily hand 
Of lovely lady in the lighted hall. 

Winter late rul'd, and from the icy North 
The angry Boreas came on frozen wings, 
Tumultuous rushing o'er the level mead, 
While at his voice each stream grew mute with fear, 
And in the zone of silence bound its joys; 
And panting zephyrs shrunk in chill dismay, 
And spread their pinions for the genial South; 
And where, 'mid yon blue rocks now swiftly rolls 
The noisy river on its foamy way, 
The wild duck scarcely found a place to lave; 
And o'er each snow-crown'd hill the wrestling winds 
Did howl like wrathful spirits as they pass'd, 
And shook the ice-balls from the shivering trees — 
Yet thou wert lovely still, my native vale. 
But now young Spring comes from the balmy South, 
Attended by sweet music and the birds, 
And strews thy meadows green with fragrant flowers, 
Woo'd by the gilded humming-birds that float, 
Like living gems, upon th' enamor'd air; 
And thy unfetter'd fountains pour their streams, 
Like molten amber, through th' enamel'd meads, 
While from their lucid depths the spangled trout 
Exulting leaps and courts the beaming sun, 
And all around is melody and mirth; — 
And thou, even to the cold and careless gaze 
Of stranger's eye, hast more than common charms ;- 
But oh! to me bright Fancy oft hath said, 
Some blooming vale in the Elysian land, 
Whose happy souls feed on th' immortal breath 
Of odors fresh from beds of amaranth, 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 161 

Serv'd as the beautiful ideal form 

From which thy loveliness was fashion'd forth. 

Each hill, each field, each stream, each lonely tree. 
That beautifies thy matchless scenes hath been 
A friend and a companion to my soul; — 
In boyhood's halcyon hours my spirit gaz'd 
Upon thy scenery and was thence imbued 
With feelings deep and strong; — and Poesy, 
Mother of proud and independent thoughts, 
Became the dweller of my breast, and bid 
Me scorn the gross and meaner things, that keep 
The grovelling crowd forever in pursuit, 
And turn aside in loneliness and be 
A constant worshipper at Nature's shrine; — 
And for this boon thou'lt ever have my praise 
My native vale, Dulany's lovely vale. 

— George Yellott. 



THE GUNPOWDER RIVER. 

Gunpowder, fairest of the streams that glide 

Thro' vales of verdure to the eastern tide! 

Thy glassy waves inverted pictures show, 

And all that smiles above is seen below; 

The broad-leafed woodbine round the maple twined, 

The mist careering on the viewless wind; 

The waving verdure and the nodding flowers, 

The trembling foliage and the blooming bowers — 

Each songster wild that cleaves the upper air 

Is seen below as sprightly and as fair. 

In the still reign of shadow-loving night, 

The pale, round Moon, Earth's lone satellite, 

Is softly mirrored in thy crystal breast, 

In all her sweetness — all her beauty dressed; 

In thy pure flood, bright, glowing Taurus swims, 

And giant Orion bathes his awful limbs — 

Yet all these wondrous, rolling planets glow 

Less bright in Heaven than they shine below. 

— Michael A. Mc&irr. 



162 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 
THE OLD MULBERRY TREE AT ST. MARY'S. 



On the State House Square, about seventy feet dis- 
tant [from the State House] stood the historic 
"Old Mulberry" tree, under whose broad, spreading 
branches the first colonists of Maryland assembled, 
and under which also traditionary history says the 
first mass at St. Mary's was celebrated and the treaty 
between Governor Calvert and the Yaocomico Indians 
was made. Of this venerable tree, whose mass of 
foliage continued for two hundred years afterward to 
crown the State House promontory, it is further re- 
corded that "on it were nailed the proclamations of 
Calvert and his successors, the notices of punish- 
ments and fines, the inventories of debtors whose 
goods were to be sold, and all notices calling for the 
public attention." Within comparatively recent years, 
even, curious relic hunters were able to pick from its 
decaying trunk the rude nails which there held the 
forgotten State papers of two centuries and more ago. 

This aged tree had watched over the city in its in- 
fancy ; in its development and prosperity, and in its 
pride and glory, as the metropolis of Maryland ; it had 
seen it stripped of its prestige and its honors, and lose 
its importance and its rank; it had witnessed its battle 
with adversity and its downfall and decline, and it 
had mourned the departure of nearly every symbol 
of its existence and memorial of its glory, which, 
under the winning game of time, had one by one, 
faded and passed away ; and still it stood — stood as a 
"silent sentinel of time, whose watchword is death" — 
stood "daily distilling the dews of Heaven" upon the 
sacred ground around it — stood, sheltering the gen- 
erations of men who were buried beneath its luxuriant 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 163 

shade — stood telling the story of the first Capital of 
Maryland, and marking the spot where once it was — 
stood until 1876, when, like the almost forgotten City 
— the companion of its prime — its time-worn and shat- 
tered trunk laid down to rest. —James W. Thomas. 



SONNETS. 



sx. john's, annapolis. 

'Tis strange that we should wander all alone, 
And muse upon the sunny days gone by, 
When Hope was spanning with her bow the sky, 

And every wind breathed a familiar tone, 

And every eye with recognition shone, 
While Fancy did on golden pinions fly 
'Mid scenes that seemed too bright to droop or die, 

Nor sky, nor earth, nor forms beside our own. 

But ah! 'tis not more strange than it is true, 
That we who walk the classic grounds today, 

And gaze upon the same bright drops of dew 
That sparkle where we once did sportive play, 

Will find but little left to greet us here, 

Save faded garlands and the heart's warm tear. 

ANNAPOLIS. 

Annapolis! how beautiful art thou! 

The sweetest, fairest spot on earth to me. 

•No rival can the palm dispute with thee, 
Or wrest the laurel from thy aged brow, 
Or rob thee of thy children's plighted vow. 

What other sky in hue can softer be, 

What bluer wave can glimmer o'er the lea. 
Than lend to thee their soft enchantment now? 
Thou art not richer in thy trees and flowers 

Than in the sons thou to the world hast given, 
Whose names are wafted on the dewy hours, 

In deathless echoes, through the vault of heaven. 
Nor Greece nor Rome can boast a fairer name, 
Or circle earth with brighter belt of fame. 



164 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

st. John's, after forty years' absence. 

The friends I love no longer roam with me, 
I tread alone the now deserted hall, 
And pluck the ivy from the moss-grown wall, 

Subdued and saddened by the change I see. 

There stands the noted, grand old tulip tree, 
Which did refreshing shade afford to all, 
Whose footsteps did in echoes gently fall 

Where every sound was tuned to melody. 

'Twas but the other day I sauntered where 
I loved to linger, long, long time ago. 

The tree, dismembered, still is standing there, 
The Severn glides along in tranquil flow; 

But ah! the loved ones, they are sleeping now, 

Death's icy signet is upon their brow. 

THE OLD POPLAR AT ANNAPOLIS. 

Oh! I remember well the tulip tree, 

Beneath whose overhanging boughs, at eve, 
I loved to sit and golden visions weave, 

When hope was painting scenes so bright for me, 

And every leaflet moved to melody. 

I never dreamed those visions could deceive, 
Or disappointment could a shadow leave 

Upon a heart so buoyant and so free. 

I hear the south wind, as it breathed that night, 
When I reclined beneath the soothing shade; 

But ah! the forms have faded from my sight, 
Which once, with me, beneath that old tree played. 

The stalwart branches hover in their might, 
While I remain confounded and dismayed. 

— Bt. Rev. William Pinkney, D. D. 



TULIP POPLAR ON ST. JOHN'S CAMPUS. 

Far up among your massive, rugged limbs, 
Quivering upon your myriad, shining leaves, 

The moon-light falls, the night-wind sings its hymns; 
And there in visions fancy soars and weaves. 

That music tuned the poet-soul of Key; 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 165 

That light touched Pinkney's tongue with deathless fire; 
And here Peale felt the artist's ecstasy, 

But there are other voices in that choir 
Of whispering boughs and leaves that lure us from today, 
Back through the bygone centuries, far, far away. 

They seem to sing: " 'Neath us the wild deer fed; 

The wood grouse drummed his call at early dawn; 
The black bear roamed; the red man made his bed; 

Ages before Columbus hailed the morn, 
Which gave assurance that a world was born. 

This lofty head, o'erlooking land and bay. 
Saw the frail boat from Jamestown's camp forlorn, 

That first explored these shores, and knew the day 
When Claiborne came and named and claimed yon Isle of 

Kent; 
Years, years before St. Marie's colonists were sent." 

You were a witness, venerable tree! 

Could you recall and speak, you could relate 
A tale of rich, romantic history, 

Linked with this city's and this Nation's fate. 
The little band of Puritans, whom hate 

And slavery of conscience forced to flee, 
Who hither came — the year that freemen date, 

In mother-land, the death of tyranny — 
Here, in this safe, secluded spot, you heard them raise 
To their Preserver solemn hymns of grateful praise. 

You saw the naval fight with Claiborne's men 

Across this bay; the battle fought near-by 
'Twixt Puritans and Cavaliers, and then 

The long, long struggle for the mastery. 
Here came the seat of State and luxury; 

Colonial wit and beauty, and the grand 
Old sages, warriors, men of history, 

Instinct with liberty, a chosen band, 
Who took this people firmly by their willing hand, 
And led them through the deserts to the promised land. 



166 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

All these you knew full well, majestic friend! 

They saw you, knew you, and imbibed your power; 
Their children's children bless and watchful tend 

Your lusty age, and shield in danger's hour 
The tree that shelter gave, in sun and shower, 

To heroes in four wars — camped on your green — 
To Washington and heart-linked chiefs, who tower, 

Serenely great, removed from all things mean; 
Like your stupendous trunk, triumphant o'er the scene 
Of vanished comrades, ages, races, which have been. 

— J. Wirt Randall. 



A SONNET. 



To an Old Tree near St. John's College. By a Gentleman of 
Annapolis. 

Ihee, ancient Tree! Autumnal storms assail, 

Thv shattered branches spread the sound afar; 
Thy tall head bows. before the rising gale, 

Thy pale leaf flits along the troubled air; 
No more thou boastest of thy vernal bloom, 

Thy withered foliage glads the eye no more; 
Yet still thy presence, and thy lonely gloom, 

A secret pleasure to my soul restore. 
For round thy trunk my careless childhood play'd, 

When Fancy led me cheerful o'er the green, 
And many a frolic feat beneath thy shade, 

Far distant days and other suns have seen. 
Fond recollection kindles at the view, 
And acts each long-departed scene anew. 



ON THE WORCESTER COAST. 

Rainbows aiong the strand, 

And whitecaps out at sea! 
And over the gleaming sand, 
Between the waves and the land, 

In the setting sun rode he. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 167 



It had tangled its gold in his hair 

That the ocean breezes blew; 
Like the forms of a finer air 

The hovering white-wings flew; 
And around him, unaware, 

The world into beauty grew. 

Lifted the light from the shore, 

Lifted the light from the sea; 
And it freighted with golden ore 

The clouds that were floating free; 
And it touched with an angry tinge 

The long and ominous fringe 

That was steadily sweeping on, 
Like a host on a doomed town. 

Then they faded, one by one; 
And the shadows settled down. 
From the tower behind him far 
Outshone a new-born star; 
And an answering vivid gleam 
Broke in a branching stream 

From the great cloud's deepening frown; 
Then, in the crash and the roar, 
The wild wind swept the shore, 

And the night and the storm had begun. 

Peace in the ancient village 

Of many-bowered Berlin, 

From the sound of the surf shut in 
By miles of woodland and tillage; 
Reaching its winding arms, 

Whose leafy canopies 

Flutter with every breeze, 
To the heart of the circling farms; 
A fragrance in all the air 

From a hundred gardens blown, 
And sunflecks everywhere 

In wavering kisses thrown! 

— William H. Babcock, 



168 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



THE ARK AND THE DOVE. 

"O Captain, my Captain!" the ruddy look-out cried 
"God's glory lies before us who seek the golden tide; 
By old Balboa's spirit and by all seamen brave 
The rose is in the spring wind and the wind is on the wave; 
I know the wildgrape's odor, and yonder, by my doom, 
I spy a golden river and a land of golden bloom!" 

"O Captain, my Captain!" the weary helmsman cried, 
"I mind me of the storm-wind that rode the ocean tide; 
The Dove put back to Scilly to patch her shattered beam — 
Pray now we near the harbors of the tide of golden dream! 
By Cortez and De Leon, 'tis true, praise God, 'tis true, 
The shore is off our quarter and the skies of spring are blue!" 

Why, then three hundred hearts beat, and then three hun- 
dred throats 
Rang out the golden chorus with its waveward echoed notes, 
And down the bay-tide rolling, and o'er the ripples' crest 
The Dove o'erheard the echo and a great hope filled its 

breast — 
Then glory to the pinnace, and glory to her mate, 
Twin Argonauts of Freedom on the golden tide of Fate! 

"O Captain, my Captain, strange joy is on the sea, 
The spirit of the springtime wanders down the rosy lea; 
The wide-mouth river beckons, the wooded reaches call; 
Fold sail and drift to harbor while the painted anchors fall!" 
The voice was of the shipmates, and the Captain heard and 

laid 
His courses for the islands of the sweet dream God had 

made. 

With bended knee they landed, with cross of rugged girth, 
They planted it deep-rooted in the New World's bloom-clad 

earth; 
They met the wild Algonquin and returned his savage grace 
With laughter and with loving and with smile upon the face; 
"O Captain, my Captain," they cried, "here on this strand 
God's glory to our sovereign, and God's grace to Mary's 

land!" 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 169 



In springs of softest shadow, in dawns of softest rose, 
Through all the tides that wander where the broad Potomac 
flows, 

Two little ships of phantom sail upward unto me 
From out the golden mornings of the springtime of the sea: 
"O Captain, my Captain!" the phantom lookout cries, 
And, "Captain, my Captain," the rose-sweet wind replies. 

Two little ships of phantom, long baffled but upborne 
By voices calling "freedom" from the New World's rosy 
morn; 

Bowed knees beside the crossbeam, and hearts with faith 

aflame, 
As they knelt to dream of glory in the land of Mary's name; 
"O Captain, my Captain!" dear Argonauts, ye rest, 
But the flame ye lit for freedom burns today in every 

breast! 

"O Captain, my Captain!" the ruddy look-out cried, 
"God's glory lies before us who seek the golden tide!" 
God's glory was before them, and on the sea was love — 
Sail on, O daring pinnace, with your little consort Dove! 
The rose is in the spring wind, the wind is on the wave, 
And the world still lays its lilies on the white brows of 
the brave! 

— Folger McKinsey. 



CHARACTER OF GEORGE CALVERT. 



We may say, in addition, that he was characterized 
not less by the politic management than by the vigor 
with which he prosecuted his designs. Considering 
the difficulties in his way, nothing but greatest tact and 
judgment could have conducted his plan of the Mary- 
land settlement to a prosperous conclusion. His ad- 
dress in the contest with Virginia, evidenced by his 
complete success, gives us a high opinion of his fitness 
for public affairs. The enterprise shown by him in the 
defence of "Avalon;" his perseverance and prompt- 



170 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

ness in bringing his Maryland scheme into action ; his 
personal labors in both of these colonies impress us 
most favorably with a respect for his courage, his 
energy, and his skill in the management of men. The 
posts which he filled, and his position and conduct in 
Parliament, the favor and esteem he seems always to 
have inspired, demonstrate his ability, as well as his 
prudence, and give us reason to infer an amiable, well 
bred and affable disposition; the character of the gov- 
ernment he established in Maryland, and the just senti- 
ments with which he seems to have inspired his son, 
and the lavish expenditure which he, doubtless, both 
authorized and provided before his death, attest his 
liberal views of the rights of conscience, his generosity 
and his zeal in the cause of colonization. 

He was eminently fitted for his undertaking by the 
circumstances in which he lived. Although we have 
no reason to believe that he was a very ardent or zeal- 
ous follower of his faith, but, on the contrary, moderate 
in that as in all other matters of opinion and conduct, 
yet, to a certain extent, he had been schooled in advers- 
ity — not the adversity of want, or disfavor — but in that 
adversity which a lofty spirit equally feels, the pro- 
scription, namely, of himself, his kindred and friends, 
for maintaining a faith to which his judgment and con- 
science attached him. Persecution and intolerance of 
his own particular religious opinions taught him, what 
they always teach upright minds, the practice of the 
opposite virtues ; and they brought him to true appre- 
ciation of that nobleness of character which cherishes 
freedom of opinion as one of the highest prerogatives 
of a rational being. In this respect Calvert was in ad- 
vance of his age. There was ever before him a daily 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 171 

admonition of the necessity of reserve, prudence and 
humility, from which he drew a wise man's profit. 
The bitter intolerance which was, in his time, more or 
less characteristic of every religious sect — almost the 
universal fashion of opinion, spread itself with peculiar 
acrimony in England against those of his creed. It 
furnished him a daily topic of meditation, and so 
chastened his feelings toward mankind. "It is the 
method of charity" — says Sir Thomas Browne — "to 
suffer without reaction" — this affords us the key to 
those virtues which appear so conspicuous in the 
frame and administration of the Maryland Colony, and 
which have drawn forth so much commendation from 
historians. 

— John Pendleton Kennedy. 



TERRA MARIAE. 

Terra Mariae — the land blossomed over 

With crimson and white of the honey-sweet clover, 

Orchards in valley and vine on the hill, 

Bays full of oysters and trout in the rill, 

Corn in the tassel, and, oh, the tall wheat 

Breaking in billows of gold at thy feet! 

Terra Mariae — the land of our leal, 

Our hands to thy cause and our hearts to thy zeal! 

Terra Mariae — the land of our birth, 
Green dream of the wonder and beauty of earth; 
Wild fowl, and sea food, and game on the wing, 
And lilacs and roses in lanes of the spring; 
Mountains that lift to the blue sky their crest 
Over the deep-fruited glades of the West; 
Plains sweeping down to the wave-wrinkled strand 
Of Talbot's sweet rivers and Worcester's white sand! 



172 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

Cities of progress and towns of delight, 
Living the creed: It is best to live right! 
Grace of fair women, and courtly, fine men, 
Living the cavalier over again; 
Pride in old families, where chivalry grows 
As sweet as the lilac, as soft as the rose, 
Exhaling the fragrance of romance and bloom 
Time wafts from the ottos of ancient perfume! 

Terra Mariae — the land we adore, 
Sweet honeysuckle abloom by the door, 
Laurel and dogwood and wild columbine, 
Stately oak woodlands and forests of pine; 
Paw-paw and hawberry, nuts in the burr, 
'Possums for pastime and muskrats for fur; 
Buckwheat and barley in glades where the bee 
Reaps harvests of honey to hide in the tree! 

Terra Mariae — oh, homeland to me 

From dream days in childland of lighthearted glee, 

Blest be thy daughters and blest be thy sons, 

Blest be the tide of thy beauty that runs 

In bloom of the valleys and breath of the bay, 

As sweet as the apple-bloom glory of May! 

God guide the ship of thy fortune and fate, 

Guard thee from plunder and save thee from hate! 

— Folger McKinsey. 



FATHER WHITE IN THE POTOMAC. 



Having now arrived at the wished for country, we al- 
lotted names according to circumstances. And, indeed, 
the Promontory, which is toward the South, we con- 
secrated with the name of St. Gregory (now Smith 
Point), naming the northern one (now Point Lookout), 
St. Michael's, in honor of all the angels. Never have 
I beheld a larger or more beautiful river. [Potomac] 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 173 

The Thames seems a mere rivulet in comparison 
with it; it is not disfigured with any swamps, but has 
firm land on each side. Fine groves of trees appear, 
not choked with briers or bushes and undergrowth, but 
growing at intervals as if planted by the hand of man, 
so that you can drive a four-horse carriage wherever 
you choose, through the midst of the trees. Just at 
the mouth of the river, we observed the natives in 
arms. That night, fires blazed through the whole 
country, and since they had never seen such a large 
ship, messengers were sent in all directions, who re- 
ported that a Canoe, like an island, had come with as 
many men as there were trees in the woods. We 
went on, however, to Heron's Islands, so called from 
the immense number of these birds. The first island 
we came to we called St. Clement's Island, and as it 
has a sloping shore, there is no way of getting to it 
except by wading. Here the women, who had left 
the ship to do the washing, upset the boat and came 
near being drowned, losing also a large part of my 
linen clothes, no small loss in these parts. 

—Rev. Andrew White, S. J. 



THE EMBLEM OF TRANQUILITY. 

'Tis said the Gods lower down that Chain above 
That tyes both Prince and Subject up in Love, 
And if this fiction of the Gods be true, 
Few, Mary -Land, in this can boast but you; 
Live ever blest, and let those Clouds that do 
Eclipse most States be always Light to you; 
And dwelling so you may forever be 

The only Emblem of Tranquility. 

— George Alsop, 



174 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

LANDHOLDING IN THE COLONY. 



Under that mild form of feudal polity, which from 
the first prevailed in Maryland, our ancestors held their 
lands as a gift "from the Proprietary, bore a willing 
allegiance, and paid a very small rent. Their title, in- 
deed, for all practical purposes, was equivalent to fee- 
simple. A little tract of land was given to each emi- 
grant ; and an additional quantity for every person he 
had brought, or subsequently transported. Tracts of 
one thousand acres and upwards were erected into 
manors, under the Proprietary, with the right given to 
lords of these limited territories to hold courts-baron 
and courts-leet. And we have recorded evidence of the 
fact, that upon St. Gabriel's and St. Clement's it was 
exercised. The Lord Proprietary also, who held the 
whole Province, by fealty of the English crown, 
pledged himself to deliver every year "On Tuesday, in 
Easter week," at the royal castle of Windsor "two 
Indian arrows," and a fifth of "all the gold and silver " 
which might be "found." 

The government in every essential particular was a 
monarchy. Of this the charter is sufficient evidence. 
It is true, the Proprietary was a subject of the English 
crown, but under the feudal state of society, it was not 
unusual for one prince to hold his territory of another. 
But no powers were ever exercised with more sub- 
stantial regard for the welfare of the colonists, and 
practical liberty did exist, at the very foundation of the 
colony. 

— GeorgeJLynn-Lachlan Davis, 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 175 

DECOURCY'S RIDE. 



Early in the Revolutionary War Albert DeCourcy 
began to raise a company for that renowned Mary- 
land regiment which was the first in the Continental 
Army to cross bayonets with the British, and which 
had so noble yet so tragic a history. It was almost 
wholly composed of young men from the better class 
of planters — recruits who had been trained from boy- 
hood to the use of weapons and exercise in the open 
air, and whose personal daring was re-enforced by 
patrician pride and the long habit of command. Such 
men were sorely needed in the unequal struggle then 
opening, so it was not long before the First Regiment 
was called away northward . . . Noting the retro- 
grade movement that followed the ruinous defeat on 
Long Island, we all ought to remember the Spartan- 
like stand made by five companies of the First Mary- 
land Regiment, under Lord Stirling, when there was 
not another man remaining in arms under the Ameri- 
can colors, and two British armies strove to over- 
whelm them in order to reach the fugitives who strug- 
gled through the bog behind. Five successive times 
these four hundred young men, who had never been 
in action before, dashed on the veterans of Cornwal- 
lis as they came up, regiment after regiment. At the 
sixth, by a desperate effort, they had almost driven 
the enemy from their position, when Grant's ten regi- 
ments, previously held in check, came down from 
behind and overwhelmed them in a frightful death 
struggle. But before it ended the sacrifice had accom- 
plished its object — the last of the fugitives had es- 



176 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

caped. The five companies of Marylanders were al- 
most annihilated.. 

One of these had been commanded by "Dashing" 
DeCourcy, and, as usual, he had been true to his nick- 
name. None had penetrated farther than he at each 
charge, and when the final ruin came he was the lead- 
ing spirit of a score who cut their way frantically 
toward the creek in the rear. Less than a dozen 
reached it, and more than half of these sank forever 
in the quagmire, either clogged and drowned or shot 
down by bullets from the bank. The five survivors 
noted dismally that Captain DeCourcy was not among 
them, yet it was certain that he had been seen on the 
farther shore with the rest. Doubtless some stagnant 
pool, blotched with lily pads, held that noble form 
and that kind, light heart. At last the direful story 
of his death was borne back to Bohemia Manor. But 
"Dashing" DeCourcy was by no means really dead. 
As he leaped into the water among the plashing bullets 
a comrade, receiving one of the latter, fell, seriously 
wounded, at his side. With characteristic self-forget- 
fulness the young captain snatched up his helpless 
friend, and, holding him high aloft, struggled on- 
ward as best he could through the mire. The enemy 
could easily have shot him from the bank, but it was 
hardly possible not to be touched by such unselfish 
gallantry following such surpassing prowess. Perhaps 
it was to save the burdened man from sinking in the 
quicksand-like marsh, rather than for the poor pleasure 
of adding one more to their list of prisoners, that some 
half a dozen of the strongest soldiers rushed in after 
him. When overtaken he was too much exhausted 
to make any great resistance. So they speedily bore 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 177 

him back to the shore again. Those of his party who 
witnessed the short fight in the water never reached 
the opposite side. . . . 

When DeCourcy found that there was nothing more 
to be done he reverted to his natural frank good humor, 
consoling himself with jests which quite charmed his 
captors. More than one of their officers declared that 
it was a shame for such a fine fellow to be a rebel. 
Indeed, a commission in his Majesty's service was once 
suggested, but DeCourcy's good humor vanished in 
a moment. Month after month passed by, and the 
number of captives dwindled without any prospect of 
release. Exchange was long impossible, for the patriot 
cause was at its lowest ebb. The victories of Trenton 
and Princeton, by placing some hundreds of prison- 
ers in Continental hands, offered at length a glimmer 
of hope; but DeCourcy, like many others, found that 
hope a delusion. 

At last there came tidings which sounded like a 
reprieve from gradual death. He was to be removed 
the very next day to a new prison on the banks of 
the Delaware. He could hardly believe what his ears 
told him. Once more he would bathe himself in the 
warm sunlight, inhale the fresh air of heaven, look 
on the waving fields of grain, feel the firm earth be- 
neath his feet, and know that he was within a score 
of miles of his home. The very thought made a living 
man of him again. The reality brightened him at once 
into something like the "Dashing" DeCourcy of yore. 
"Twenty miles — less," he would say to himself. "Yes, 
we should make it in considerably less if I only had 
my horse, black Cecil, here, and those walls away." 



178 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

But even while he turned, his eyes fell on the very 
black Cecil which was uppermost in his mind. Some 
of the soldiers were leading the horse through the gate 
sorely against his will. . . . 

"We are both of us prisoners now, Cecil," said he. 
"However, I am right glad to see you again, old fel- 
low." The horse responded with caresses as best he 
could. 

"If the wall were not so high, DeCourcy, and the 
ditch so wide, and the abatis so broad and thick, I 
don't know that I should trust you and that black 
Pegasus together," said the major. 

DeCourcy laughed lightly. "Handkerchief-picking 
is much easier," he answered. 

It was necessary, first of all, to be quite sure of his 
seat in the saddle and the action of his horse, for inter- 
mission of practice breeds lack of confidence, and lack 
of confidence often means failure. The greater part 
of the enclosure had already been cleared, fortunately 
leaving quite unoccupied the part where he meant to 
make his exit. In the space thus formed he took two 
or three turns, at gradually increasing speed, with the 
view of limbering both his horse and himself to their 
work. Then with a quick chirrup he flew swiftly 
round. As he passed the handkerchief, he swooped 
suddenly down, with outstretched hand, narrowly mis- 
sing it. 

"Next time !" called DeCourcy, as he sped round like 
a whirlwind. At this trial he seemed to fling himself 
headlong from the tall black. Only a hand and a foot 
remained in sight above the saddle. But as he re- 
gained his seat, the handkerchief was lifted high above 
his head. 






MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 179 

The applause that followed was furious. Even the 
sentries set down their weapons to clap their hands 
and cheer. The next instant they regretted their en- 
thusiasm. With no great slackening of speed, the 
black had changed his direction a little and shot to 
the crown of the rampart. For an instant he stood 
there, with spreading limbs, horse and man together 
seeming a colossal equestrian statue in bronze out- 
lined against the sky; then, before a musket could 
be brought to bear, they leaped outward, apparently 
into space. 

For a moment surprise held the garrison fixed ; then 
there was a sudden rush to the spot. But it came too 
late. The calculation had been made exactly, and as 
exactly fulfilled. Cecil's iron forejoints and sinews 
had stood the fearful strain that had been put upon 
them, and he and his master were now nearing the 
woods at a lightning pace. There was no time to do 
more than send a random volley after the fugitive, to 
which DeCourcy responded by waving his handker- 
chief souvenir toward the fort as he turned in his 
saddle, with a clear, merry whoop of triumph. 

He gave little thought to pursuit. He knew that 
he was riding for life or death, or perhaps worse ills 
than the latter ; and though his heart bled for his faith- 
ful Cecil, he grudged every necessary slackening of 
their headlong speed. He dashed crashing between 
tree and trunks and through the densest thickets 
wherever he could save a turn of the road ; he plunged 
without a thought into freshet-swollen streams ; he 
leaped every fence that came in his way. As he clat- 
tered down the streets of quiet hamlets, the small 
negroes came running up barefooted from by-ways 



180 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

to look after that strange man . . . Suddenly there came 
a great rush outside, and horse and man halted to- 
gether in the open doorway, like an apparition from 
another world. There was, indeed, much in them both 
to foster the idea. The agonized eyes of black Cecil ; 
his foam-mottled chest, heaving flank and blood-snort- 
ing nostrils ; the gaunt, wild-eyed face of the rider ; 
his long, tangled hair and tattered disorder of ap- 
parel — all these combined to make up an unearthly 
picture. With them came a hoarse, breathless cry from 
lips which all recognized as those of the dead : "Look 
to yourselves ! The British ! The British !" No won- 
der the women sank fainting, or burst into screams, 
on every side, while strong men stood frozen with 
bewilderment and fear. . . . 

There was no attack upon Bohemia Manor. The 
first few straggling troopers saw good reason to wait 
until the main body came up, and before the latter 
were prepared to assail so strong a position rumors 
arrived that a party of countrymen were gathering to 
oppose their return. 

— William H. Bdbcock. 



THE PATAPSCO. 

My own — my native river, 

Thou flashest to the day — 
And gatherest up thy waters 

In glittering array; 
The spirits of thy bosom 

Are waking from their rest, 
And O! their shouts are banishing 

Sad feelings from my breast. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 181 



The prancing of thy sunlit waves 

Beneath the feathery spray — 
How beautiful to witness them 

In revelry and play! 
But see! some secret signal now 

Invites them to the main, 
And, calm behind, before the wind 

They gallop out again. 

Awa}'! away! to their bright homes 

Exultingly they leap, 
Their joyous glances lingering 

On tower, tree and steep; 
A bright look to their Southern Queen- 

A parting melody — 
A shout to yonder banner, 

Guardian angel of the free. 

A farewell to the barks they bore 

Back to their native home — 
A glance at the declining sun, 

Which gilds their parting foam — 
A song to yon "historic ground," 

Where freedom's martyrs sleep; 
And now those lovely wanderers 

Are out upon the deep. 

Bold river! Noble river! 

How many tales thou hast! 
Though of all the savage legends 

Which lie within thy breast, 
Alas! there is no trace that can 

Their annals e'er proclaim, 
Save one which is thy history 

And monument — thy name. 

So soft, so clear, so beautiful, 

That even the clouds we see, 
So lovely in their native blue, 

More lovely are in thee; 
For with affection's holiest smile 

The heavens illume thy tide, 
Thou glory of thy happy sons, 

Their blessing and their pride! 



-Charles Soran. 



182 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



BY THE GREAT CHOPTANK RIVER. 

Oh, river! vast, throbbing river, 

Thy course to and fro, clay and night, 
Is the pulse that respondeth ever 

To the heart of the Infinite. 
And I sit by thy margin thinking — 

As the evening shadows fold, 
And the gorgeous sun is sinking 

In unspeakable tints of gold — 
That as in the ancient story, 

From the patriarch's pillow of stone, 
I can see the great pathway to glory, 

And the angels that pass thereon; 
I can hear in the waters rushing 

The token that God is nigh, 
'Tis the hem of His garment brushing 

In resistless grandeur by. 
And my heart calleth out in its fullness, — 

"Surely this is the place of His feet;" 
And I supplicate here in the stillness, 
Where the sands and the waters meet. 

—J. F. Gelletly. 

EDGAR ALLAN POE'S GRAVE. 

Chill the nook beside the barren street, 

Walled from man, but open to the sky. 
O'er the stone the cloudy shadows fleet; 
Clings the mist, a pallid winding-sheet; 

Death and life have met eternally, 

Still the pageant troops before his eye 

Who abode in starlit mystery. 
Wayward spirit of the haunted glen, 

Tuneful wanderer of the midnight blast, 
Doomed awhile to dwell with mortal men, 

Singing phantom kindred as they passed. 
Airy harp with notes beyond our ken, 
Subtle, pure, our one unearthly pen, 

£ome what may, the foremost and the last. 

— William E. Babcock. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 183 

MARYLAND VILLAGE IN MOONLIGHT. 

... In distance away, 
Rolled the foam-crested waves of Chesapeake Bay, 
While bathed in the moonlight the village was seen, 
With the church in the distance, that stood on the green. 
The soft-sloping meadows lay brightly unrolled, 
With their mantles of verdure and blossoms of gold; 
And the earth in her beauty, forgetting to grieve, 
Lay asleep in her bloom on the bosom of eve. 

The time is long past, yet how clearly defined 

That bay, church and village float up on my mind; 

I see amid azure the moon in her pride, 

With the sweet little trembler that sat by her side, 

I hear the blue waves, as she wanders along, 

Leap up in their gladness and sing her a song. 

— Amelia B. Welby. 



THE SIRES OF SEVENTY-SIX. 

The chain that links the free to other years — 

Remembered years of danger and of blood, 

Remains unsevered; yet among us move 

Like suns amid the systems of the skies — - 

Points of attraction for the wondering throngs, 

A few of those who periled life and fame, 

And nobly dared the thunderbolts of war, 

To wrest a nation from a tyrant's grasp. 

Their eyes looked on the Revolution's smoke — 

They saw the starry banner of the free 

Waving in beauty amid the battle's blaze, 

And heard the shout its high success that cheered; 

And they have told the tale of glorious deeds, 

Their sons may boast for centuries to come. 

— Rev. John N. McJiUon, D. D. 



184 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

THE RED CLAY HILLS OF CECIL. 

The red-clay hills of Cecil, and the valleys at their feet, 
Where cricks and rivers ripple to the broad bay singing sweet, 
The cattle in the bottoms, where the natural meadows lie, 
Like the peaceful purple pastures of the land of sunny sky; 
The grain fields and the orchards and the marshes of the reed, 
Where the old sandpiper whistles and the railbird loves to 
feed: 

The red-clay hills of Cecil, 

Where the crocus starts the spring, 
And God's glory walks in blossom 
Till frost folds the gentian's wing! 

The red-clay hills of Cecil, and the scrubpine barren lands, 
Where the wild blackberries ripen in a world of blistering 

sands; 
The clean-cut, thrifty homesteads and the rolling seas of 

grain, 
Where the summer sifts its sunshine and the green corn 

drinks the rain; 
The farms beside the river, and the Big Elk gleaming there, 
While the brave Sir Peter Parker's ghostly comrades grin 
and stare: 

The red-clay hills of Cecil 

And the lovely leagues between, 
Where the smile of nature ripples 
Into vales of living green! 

The red-clay hills of Cecil, and the plateaus stretching fine 
Where the happy homes of beauty 'neath the sweet clematis 

shine; 
The mill wheels singing merry by the streams that saunter 

down 
To the dreamy boatyard landing and the wharves of old 

Frenchtown; 
The song of Octaroro and the school at Nottingham, 
And the mem'ry of old Marley, with the wastegate and the 

dam: 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 185 

The red-clay hills of Cecil, 

Where the hope of youth revives, 

And the lips of love are calling 
Down the dales of happy lives! 

The red-clay hills of Cecil and the Blue Ball road for me, 
The old Bohemia Manor and the picnic groves of glee; 
Brick Meeting House; and yonder, with its far-off signal 

light, 
A Philadelphia steamer up the old canal at night; 
The old Principio furnace, and the broad-based granite hill, 
With its head at Port Deposit and its feet at Perryville: 
The red-clay hills of Cecil, 

And in March beneath the snow 
The frail arbutus blossom, 

With its faint pink lips a-blow! 

The red-clay hills of Cecil — call me back again, again, 
O sweet, old Cecil voices, with your tender heart-refrain! 
The cattle in the meadows and the .uplands waving sweet 
With the rolling, golden billows of the heavy-headed wheat; 
The cricks that turn the mill wheels, and from Plum Point to 

the bay 
A song of dreamful summers in the lanes of boyhood day: 
The red-clay hills of Cecil, 

And a towhead whistling down 
Where the moonbeams of the fairy 
Light his path into the town! 

— Folger McKinsey. 



DISMEMBERMENT OF MARYLAND. 

In the charter granted to Lord Baltimore for the 
province of Maryland, the northern and eastern 
boundaries were as clearly designated and defined 
as could possibly have been done by language, or 
by any other means. Indeed, had the royal grantor 
himself traversed the entire route, set up the bounds 



186 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

with his own hand, and stamped them with the great 
seal, the limits which he intended for Maryland, on 
the north and east, would not have been more clearly 
set forth. And as if this was not enough to secure to 
Baltimore the whole extent of his grant, beyond the 
possibility of a doubt, his majesty closed with these 
significant words, so unusual in an instrument of the 
kind : "And if, peradventure, hereafter it may hap- 
pen that any doubts or questions should arise con- 
cerning the true sense and meaning of any word, 
clause or sentence contained in this our present char- 
ter, we will, charge and command that interpretation 
to be applied always, and in all things, and in all 
our courts and jurisdictions whatsoever, to obtain, 
which shall be judged to be the more beneficial, profit- 
able and favorable to the aforesaid Baron of Balti- 
more, his heirs and assigns." 

Yet under this comprehensive charter which the 
learned McMahon has characterized as "the most 
ample and sovereign that ever emanated from the 
English crown," which is shielded with all these pre- 
cautions and armed with well-nigh sovereign powers, 
Lord Baltimore, by encroachments made upon his 
boundaries — begun by selfish ambition and greed of 
gain, and pursued for years with unscrupulous per- 
tinacity — was, without the least compensation or ten- 
der of compensation, deprived of two-fifths of the 
fairest portion of his domain ... In 1661 Baltimore 
secured a confirmation of his patent in its entirety ; 
so that whatever right may have lapsed by his non- 
occupancy of any territory within his charter limits 
was as fully secured to him by this confirmation as 
though his charter had just been granted. It would, 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 187 

therefore, be mere twaddle to assert that the occu- 
pancy by the Dutch gave York the right to deprive 
his lordship of any portion of it, merely because he 
himself had conquered the Dutch. From that day, 
however, the unscrupulous Duke claimed it as his 
own ; and, as may be surmised, Baltimore found in 
him a far more formidable competitor than the Dutch 
— one who, to the end, never evinced any compunc- 
tion for the flagrant robbery. What was Baltimore 
to do, confronted as he was by his rapacious Royal 
Highness, who, in all England, stood next to the 
King in power and influence, and who might himself 
at any moment become king? One might suppose 
that his lordship would at least submit quietly, or 
possibly, like many others of that day, become an 
obsequious petitioner for that which so clearly be- 
longed to him already. But Lord Baltimore did 
neither. He was, at the time, in England, and no 
doubt used both persuasion and remonstrance not 
only with the Duke but with his majesty to secure 
the evacuation of his territory. Whatever efforts he 
made there, however, were fruitless and he resolved 
to deal with the matter by the only means left to 
him . . . The records of the next three years show 
conclusively that the provincial government, acting 
under the Proprietary's instruction, made the most 
vigorous efforts short of war to establish settlements 
of Marylanders in the disputed territory. Rents were 
reduced one-half, manors were laid out for the Pro- 
prietary and every encouragement was given to set- 
tlers. If they failed to avail themselves of his gen- 
erous offers in such numbers as he could have de- 
sired, it was no fault of himself or of his govern- 



188 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

ment. The knowledge that the entire region was 
claimed by the Duke of York, who already wielded 
a vast influence with the king, and might at any 
moment become himself king, hung like a nightmare 
over Lord Baltimore's Delaware territory and kept 
many aloof who might otherwise have made their 
homes in that region. Yet the efforts of the provin- 
cial government, so far from being relaxed, were re- 
doubled. Although the attempted erection of the two 
counties [Durham and one unnamed, 1669] seems 
to have come to naught, in 1672 Worcester county 
was erected, including all the territory embraced in 
both the aborted ones. This time, however, all the 
officials necessary to the complete organization of a 
county were appointed . . . From the recital of the 
many and vigorous efforts made by Lord Baltimore 
to reclaim his territory, beginning about 1640, only 
six years after his colony was placed at the opposite 
extremity of his grant, it will be seen how little 
ground there really was for the fatal assertion after- 
wards urged against his charter — namely, that he had 
forfeited by his supineness whatever rights he may 
have had to the disputed territory. His struggle with 
Claiborne began the very year his colony landed in 
Maryland, and was not brought to a triumphant ter- 
mination until 1658, when it was settled through the 
Proprietary's negotiations with Cromwell, after hav- 
ing continued, with intervals, for twenty-four years. 
The struggle for the Delaware region, if we leave 
out of consideration the isolated and aborted effort 
of Marylanders in 1640 to plant a colony near the 
fortieth degree, began immediately after Claiborne's 
final discomfiture, and was directed against the Dutch 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 189 

and Swedes until their conquest in 1664 by the Duke 
of York, and from that time, for eighteen years, 
against the latter. The last, but by no means the 
most formidable, of those with whom Baltimore had 
to contend for the territory so clearly granted to him, 
was William Penn ... In August, 1682, the Duke 
gave Penn a deed "of all the town of New Castle, and 
all that tract of land lying within the compass or circle 
of twelve miles about the same." On the same day, 
by a separate deed His Royal Highness also con- 
veyed to Penn "the territory of Delaware Bay, be- 
ginning twelve miles south from the town of New 
Castle, and extending to Cape Henlopen." At the 
same time he released to Penn any claim he might 
have to the territory included in his grant of Penn- 
sylvania . . . The final decision was made, (by the 
king in council), in 1685 and decreed, "that for the 
avoiding all future differences, the tract of land lying 
between the river and bay of Delaware and the East- 
ern sea, on the same side, and Chesapeake Bay on 
the other, be divided into two equal parts by a line 
drawn from the latitude of Cape Henlopen to the 
40th degree of northerly latitude — the eastern half to 
belong to his majesty, and the other to remain to 
Lord Baltimore." So it did not go directly to Penn 
after all, but to his royal patron, who, however, at 
once handed it over to his favorite, this being the 
fourth time! 

— George W. Archer. 



190 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

AUGUSTINE HERMAN— BOHEMIA MANOR. 

Had Lord Baltimore's special order of commission 
to his brother Leonard, dated at Portsmouth, Eng- 
land, 8th August, 1636, been fully executed, a great 
part of Maryland would have been parcelled out in 
grants of manors of two or more thousand acres, 
giving to their proprietors not only the right of soil, 
but of holding courts baron and courts leet to decide 
upon personal claims and also of property. These 
rights of jurisdiction were to descend from the orig- 
inal owner to his heirs. The early records are 
filled with such grants : to George Talbot of Sus- 
quehanna Manor in Cecil county, to Marmaduke Til- 
den of Great Oak Manor on Eastern Neck, to George 
Evelyn of the Manor of Evelynton in St. Mary's 
county, and many others. In the records of this so- 
ciety are preserved the rent-rolls of Queen Anne's 
Manor, and a statement of the sale in a single year 
of twenty-seven manors, embracing 100,000 acres. 
These manors were granted by the Lord Proprietor, 
whereas in New York, the only conquered colony, the 
titles to manors were derived directly from the king. 

The idea of founding an aristocracy in Maryland 
seems from the very first to have been of no effect, 
as no single title was ever created and none recog- 
nized, but that of Lord Baltimore himself, although in 
some of the early manors baronial courts were held. 
The manors were soon subdivided among the differ- 
ent descendants of the original proprietors, and the 
last one ceased to exist in its entirety with the death 
of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, although to the pres- 
ent day many Maryland estates are still called manors, 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 191 

such as My Lady's Manor, Doughoregan Manor and 
Bohemia Manor . . . 

Augustine Herman, whose career fills no inconsid- 
erable space in the annals of New Netherlands, began 
in 1660 the surveys for his map of Maryland and Vir- 
ginia, an undertaking of great magnitude, which cost 
him no less than ten years of labor and about two 
hundred pounds sterling, a large sum of money at 
that early period, and equal at the present time to at 
least ten thousand dollars. It was engraved in Lon- 
don by William Faithorne. The only one I have ever 
seen or of which I have any knowledge is in the 
British Museum. It was published in four folio sheets 
in 1670, and contains a portrait of Herman, who is 
repesented as a very fine looking man of middle age 
of the cavalier type of that tirne, and clearly shows 
that he possessed what worthy old Fuller quaintly 
calls "a- handsome man-case." ... In consideration of 
this valuable map, which Stuyvesant vainly endeav- 
ored to possess, and of which Washington said that 
"it was admirably planned and equally well executed," 
Lord Baltimore, in accordance with his agreement, 
bestowed upon Herman a large tract of land in Cecil 
county and later on in New Castle county, Delaware. 
The first patent was dated June 19, 1662, which was 
the year after Herman removed his family to Mary- 
land. The patents of Lord Baltimore to the maker 
of the map were extremely liberal, for besides Bo- 
hemia Manor there was granted to him Little Bo- 
hemia, to which was added in 1671 St. Augustine's 
Manor and in 1682 The Bohemia Sisters. The title 
of ''Lord" was conferred on Herman, together with 
all the rights and privileges incident to a manor, such 



192 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

as holding courts baron and courts leet; these man- 
ors were to be holden, the grant says, "of Cecilius, 
Lord Baron of Baltimore, and of his heirs, as of the 
manor of St. Maries, in free and common socage, by 
fealty only for all manner of service, yielding and 
paying therefor yearly unto us or our heirs, at our 
receipt of St. Maries, at the two most usual feasts of 
the year, viz., at the feast of the Annunciation of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary, and at the feast of St. Michael 
the Archangel, by even and equal portions, the rent 
of four pounds sterling, in silver and gold, or the 
full value thereof in such commodities as we or our 
heirs shall accept in discharge thereof." 

Herman erected on Bohemia river a large manor 
house commensurate with his great landed posses- 
sions, and there he resided with his family and large 
retinue of servants whom he had transferred from 
New Amsterdam, as he records, at "great expense." 
. . . He was a member of the Governor's Council, a 
justice of Baltimore county, and a commissioner on 
several occasions to treat with the Indians. He ap- 
pears to have had more or less official and business 
correspondence with Roger Williams, of Rhode Is- 
land; Governor John Winthrop the younger, of Con- 
necticut ; Petrus Stuyvesant, of New York ; William 
Penn, of Pennsylvania, and with Lord Baltimore. . . . 
As long ago as the period of which we are speaking, 
the construction of a canal to connect the waters of 
the Delaware and Chesapeake bays was contemplated 
. . . and perhaps the far-seeing Herman was as much 
influenced by the prospective canal and the great ad- 
vantages to be derived from it, as he was by the for- 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 193 

ests of stately trees and the fertility of the soil, when 
he made choice of Bohemia Manor. . . . 

Herman's spacious mansion, commanding a fine 
view of Bohemia river to the Chesapeake Bay, was 
destroyed by fire in 1815, and with it many old and 
valuable paintings. Some of them had belonged to 
the founder of the manor, including his own and Mrs. 
Herman's full-length portraits, and also the large 
painting representing his flight from New Amster- 
dam. Tradition says that Herman was once a pris- 
oner under sentence of death, presumably owing to 
his fearless opposition to the tyrannical Stuyvesant. 
Feigning insanity, he requested that his noble horse 
should be brought to him in prison. Herman mounted 
him and seemed to be performing the military ex- 
ercises of his youth, when on the first opportunity 
he dashed through an open door or window, sprang 
into a small boat with which he crossed the North 
river, his steed swimming by his side, and so suc- 
ceeded in getting back safely to his manor. When 
his favorite horse died his master caused him to be 
buried, and honored his grave with a tombstone. . . . 
Augustine Herman died in 1686. His monumental 
stone is still to be seen on his manor. 

—^James Grant Wilson. 



Sword of our gallant fathers, defenders of the brave, 
Of Washington upon the field, and Perry on the wave! 
Well might Columbia's foemen beneath thy death-strokes 

reel, 
For each hand was firm that drew thee, and each heart as true 

as steel. 

— Amelia B. Welly, 



194 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

THE AUTUMN FIELDS OF MARYLAND. 

The autumn fields of Maryland, 

How sweet, how calm they lie — 
By hill and stream a path of dream 

That winds unto the sky! 
The autumn fields of Maryland, 

The meadows lush with bloom, 
The cornland, with its ranks of green, 

Its tossing tassel-plume! 
The harvest bells are ringing, 

The plowman's song is sweet 
Across the fields of Maryland 

All in the stubbled wheat! 

The autumn fields of Maryland, 

Across them drifts and drones 
The bumble of the drowsy bee, 

The insect monotones; 
The cows are in the bottom, 

The curlews on the hill, 
The fall fish leap in silver 

Through the shallows of the rill! 
Ah, golden autumn meadows 

In Maryland's land of smile, 
With dreams upon the streams of song 

And in the meadow-mile! 

The autumn fields of Maryland, 

Filled with the wild bloom's hoard, 
The feet of fairies walking 

Down gardens of the Lord; 
Far over hill and valley 

The wind-harps sweetly play, 
While insects weave their silver threads 

To snare the feet of day! 
The mower's song is silent, 

The thrasher's tune is still 
While harvest lifts its voices 

In the burr-song of the mill! 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 195 

The autumn fields of Maryland. 

At dawn a sheen of dew, 
With phantoms of the crimson sky 

In purple gauze and blue; 
The tinkling cowbells yonder, 

And orchards fruited red 
With apples of the blush of rose 

And clustered grapes o'erhead! 
The cider presses swinging, 

The amber juices sweet; 
The yellow pumpkins in the corn 

Piled where the dead vines meet! 

The autumn fields of Maryland, 

At night a moon of dream, 
W ! ith blue autumnal skies and stars 

To shed their radiant gleam; 
A night song down the valley, 

An echo up the road/ 
The jig tune of a fiddle string 

By rustic fingers bowed: 
Yea, fields of dreaming beauty, 

And fields of faded bloom, 

Where shadows of the old times pass 

In ghosts of gray perfume! 

— Folger McKinsey. 



THE SPESUTIE FIGHT. 

Thus it happened that at three in the morning the 
"James and Thomas" was off the headland which is 
thrust down like a giant's thumb in the northern 
end of the Sea of Maryland. By four, the sloop had 
rid her keel of the waters of the Elk, and was now 
being borne along by the flood, which had just begun 
to enter that uppermost basin of the Chesapeake, into 
which the Susquehanna pours the waters of a thou- 
sand mountain slopes. Far, far astern the fire-ship 



196 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

burned like a red star on the bosom of the bay, and 
in the heavens above her sailed a clipped moon, 
bound down the sky in old Saturn's wake. A west- 
erly wind was rising. The pink of daybreak was in 
the east; wild fowl were honking overhead, and there 
was a clatter as of wings innumerable upon the shal- 
lows and in the coves. Geese, brant, red-heads arose 
from under the "Jim-Tom's" prow and cracked the 
air, as in a continuous whirlwind, but the rays of the 
morning sun were beating through the mist on Maud- 
lin's Mountain, when at last Captain Polly saw, 
gliding out from its shadow, the craft she was sigh- 
ing to come up with and dying to cannonade. The 
Tory's xebec was under full sail, close-hauled, and lay- 
ing a course for Spesutie Island by the distant west- 
ern shore. Captain Polly put the "Jim-Tom's" nose 
in the wind and went about. The sloop swung upon 
her keel, and, with a pretty spit of foam at the bows, 
quit the shadow of the mountain, and gave the full of 
her canvas to the sunburst of the morning. . . . The 
vessels were now speeding under full sail, side by 
side, and at close quarters. The piccarooners of the 
xebec, having brought three big guns into play, be- 
gan to pelt the ''Jim-Tom" in the bows, where Pfaff, 
with his swivel, was thundering away. The gun was 
so hot that whenever a bit of spray blew over the 
bows and struck the metal there was an angry splut- 
ter of steam ; but the old bombardier, his hands blis- 
tered, and his eyebrows singed to the skin with pow- 
der, banged and banged, ever aiming at that part 
of the xebec in which the Tory chief was to be seen 
. . . The ball struck the boat and shattered it, and 
its occupants turned heels over head into the water. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 197 

Now, the old Tory had sewed his gold into a long 
canvas bag and this bag was wrapped about the 
necks of his two body-servants. When these men 
were thrown into the water, the weight of the gold 
held them fast in the mud, and before they could be 
brought to the surface both were drowned. But the 
captain regained his metal, and leaving his negroes 
to the fishes, waded ashore #nd disappeared in the 
forest that bordered the western rim of the great 
basin. As for Captain Polly, she took the wind astern 
for Turkey Point, where she rejoined her fleet, and 
passed with the flood to the Head of Elk, sending 
me thence posthaste to Cockfoot's in orders that I 
might urge forward the main train of succor. 

— George Morgan. 



OUT OF A FREDERICK WINDOW. 

Out of a Frederick window — a glimpse of a far-off hill; 
Out of a Frederick window — a vale and a rippling rill; 
Out of a Frederick window — a mountain with crown of snow, 
And a long, white road through the valley that sweeps like 
a bowl below: 

Out of a Frederick window — the fields of the winter wheat, 
And over it all Catoctin, with the town at its green-girt 
feet! 

Out of a Frederick window — a window that looks to the 
West, 

The beautiful blue hills dreaming the dream of the wintry 
rest; 

Snow-crowned, gleaming and splendid; somber when dusk 
drifts down 

And the bells of the twilight echo from the spires of the 
beautiful town: 

Out of a Frederick window — the old pike winding far, 
The vales and the bending river, the peaks and the even- 
ing star! 



198 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



Out of a Frederick window — a glimpse of the naked trees, 
Braddock upon the summit, and the echo of melodies 
When the bees in the summer orchards and the hillside birds 

set fire 
To the heart of the listening dreamer as they sang in a 
sweetheart choir: 
Out of a Frederick window — the meadows of furze and 

bloom, 
And love in a faded garden with her foot on a silver loom! 

Out of a Frederick window — I see and shall see it again, 
Through the smoke of the noisy cities, the dust of the feet 

of men, 
A vision of hill and valley, and peaks one peak of snow, 
And the turnpike winding, winding through the orchard- lands 
below: 
Out of a Frederick window — a calm world, fair and sweet, 
Where the peaches bloom in the summer and the cradles 
swing in the wheat! 

Out of a Frederick window — a car climbs over the hill, 
The steel wires sing in the valley and the cows come down 

to the rill; 
The nhantoms of old, sweet faces, the shadows of old friends, 

glide, 
And a great dream breaks into morning with a young heart 
by my side: 
Out of a Frederick window — the valleys, and there they lie, 
The peaks of the loved Catoctin in the blue of a wintry 
sky! 

— Folger McKinsey. 



THE POTOMAC RIVER. 

From " Washington." 
The wooded banks are silent each to each, 

Far sundered as by rounding lake; 
To grasp the tideful flood's ambitious reach 

The heavens a dim horizon make; 
Fitly these woven grandeurs feed 
Moods which a mighty presence here doth breed. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 199 

The fires of spring are kindled on the shores; 

Cherry and dogwood flame in white; 
Blossoms in green the life from sassafras cores, 

But warmest is the rosebud's light; 
To each a deeper glow results 
From his soul's heat who ruleth now my pulse. 

Its hungry flanks the cork-buoyed seine spreads wide; 

The boatman's call is heard afar; 
The distant craft like friendly spectres glide, 

But all to me transfigured are: 
For over all himself impends: 
To each his worth benignant blessing lends. 

Potomac! great thou art from thy great flood; 

Greater as seat of empire vast; 
But greatest, that thy breezes nursed the blood 

Of him the foremost of the past; 
For whom all sacred shalt thou be, 
With Avon, Tiber, holiest Galilee. 

— George Henry Calvert. 



A CHESAPEAKE MARSH. 

Willows and willows in two gust-worn rows, 
The fading sunset and the marsh between, 
A road beneath where little pools lie keen 

At twisted roots, and faint the late light glows. 

The yellowing leaves flame down each wind that blows, 
And choke the pools and heap the rushes lean. 
Wheels rumble; up the road a cart is seen; 

White in a whirl of dust it lumbering shows. 

Eastward, beyond the wall of gust-worn trees, 
A rotting boat drawn up among the reeds; 
Creeks that past foggy alders blazing slip; 

Salt scents; the stir of solitary bees; 

A startled bird that shoreward clamoring speeds 
And leagues of water empty of a ship. 

— Lizette Woodivorth Reese, 



200 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

THE CURRENCY OF THE COLONY. 



Tobacco was not only the staple product of Mary- 
land, but was also its circulating medium, two hundred 
and seventy pounds of tobacco being held equivalent 
to an English guinea. But by the middle of the 
eighteenth century Maryland planters had begun to 
wear out their lands by injudicious farming. A poet 
of the colony presented to Lord Baltimore in 1733 a 
petition in verse, soliciting some relief for the planters : 

Too long, alas! tobacco has engrossed 

Our cares, until we mourn our market lost. 

Despairing, we impending ruin view, 

Yet starving must our old employ pursue. 

If you, benevolent, afford your aid, 

Your faithful tenants shall enlarge their trade; 

By you encouraged, artists shall appear, 

And gathering crowded towns inhabit here; 

Well pleased would they employ their gainful hands 

To purchase and improve your vacant lands. 

The country lying immediately to the west of Balti- 
more was peculiarly fitted for the cultivation of the 
staple. There is still the Rolling Road, nine miles 
from Baltimore, down which hogsheads of tobacco, 
pierced so as to turn on their own axles when drawn 
by mules or oxen, were rolled down to Elkridge Land- 
ing, now a village on the Patapsco, but which once 
hoped to be the rival of Baltimore. 

— E. W. Latimer. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 201 
PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF MARYLAND. 

The history of the Provisional Government of 
Maryland has now been traced, in its general outlines, 
from its germ in the non-importation agreements of 
1773 and 1774 through its gradual exercise and asser- 
tion of sovereign authority until it found itself the 
only power in the colony. It has been seen to pass 
through three more or less distinct stages, beginning, 
in the first, in the commercial resistance of the people 
to the aggressions of their rights and liberties, and 
rising to the power of armed opposition, taking the 
sword out of the Governor's hands and asserting 
itself as a second power in the province. In the 
second stage, it organized itself more fully, and 
gradually grew until it completely overshadowed the 
proprietary authority, and, in the third, it cut the 
Gordian-knot, declared the colony's independence, 
broke all connection with the Proprietary, and ended 
in the setting up of a new State government. In 
all this time — a period of nearly three years — it had 
pursued no other policy than the calm, consistent de- 
fense of the people's 'rights. It did not want to do 
anything more than maintain these rights, and the 
forcing upon it of the ultimate consequence was only 
the result of circumstances. But, under the pressure 
of those circumstances, it nobly showed itself equal 
to its task and started forward the government which, 
with some alterations, has worked smoothly for more 
than a century. During its continuance, its actions 
were marked by calm good sense and sober judgment. 
Drawing its authority directly from the people, it 
ever kept close to the source of its power, and, though 



202 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

the spirit of the age was far less democratic than 
that of ours, it was always true to the voice of its 
constituents. In comparison with the character and 
development of other such transitional periods in the 
history of government, its history may well be a 
matter of pride to every loyal Marylander. 

— John Archer Silver. 



THE OLD PIKE. 

The [National] Road is the only highway of its 
kind ever wholly constructed by the government of 
the United States. When Congress first met after 
the achievement of independence and the adoption of 
the Federal Constitution, the lack of good roads was 
much commented upon by our statesmen and citizens 
generally, and various schemes suggested to meet the 
manifest want. But it was not until the year 1806, 
when Jefferson was President, that the proposition 
for a National Road took definite shape. . . . Tra- 
dition, cheerfully acquiesced in by popular thought, 
attributes to Henry Clay the conception of the Na- 
tional Road, but this seems to be an error. The Hon. 
Andrew Stewart, in a speech in Congress, January 
27, 1829, asserted that "Mr. Gallatin was the very 
first man that ever suggested the plan for making the 
Cumberland Road." The road as constructed by the 
authority of Congress, begins at the City of Cum- 
berland, in the State of Maryland, and this is the 
origin of the name Cumberland Road. All the acts of 
Congress and of the Legislatures of the States through 
which the road passes, and they are numerous, refer 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 203 

to it as the Cumberland Road. The connecting link 
between Cumberland and the city of Baltimore is a 
road much older than the Cumberland Road and the 
two together constitute the National Road. . . . From 
the time it was thrown open to the public, in the 
year 1818. until the coming of railways west of the 
Allegheny mountains, in 1852, the National Road was 
the one great highway, over which passed the bulk 
of trade and travel, and the mails between the East 
and the West. Its numerous and stately stone bridges, 
with handsomely turned arches, its iron mile posts 
and its old iron gates, attest the skill of the work- 
men engaged in its construction, and to this day re- 
main enduring monuments of its grandeur and solid- 
ity, all save the imposing iron gates. Many of the 
illustrious statesmen and heroes of the early period 
of our national existence passed over the National 
Road from their homes to the capital and back, at 
the opening and closing of the sessions of Congress. 
Jackson, Harrison, Clay, Sam Houston, Polk, Taylor, 
Crittenden, Shelby, Allen, Scott, Butler, the eccentric 
Davy Crockett and many of their contemporaries in 
public service, were familiar figures in the eyes of the 
dwellers by the roadside. ... As many as twenty 
four-horse coaches have been counted in line at one 
time on the road and large, broad-wheeled wagons 
covered with white canvas stretched over bows, laden 
with merchandise and drawn by six Conestoga horses, 
were visible all the day long at every point, and many 
times until late in the evening, besides innumerable 
caravans of horses, mules, cattle and sheep. . . . The 
road was justly renowned for the great number and 
excellence of its inns or taverns. On the mountain 



204 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

division every mile had its tavern. Here one could 
be seen perched on some elevated site, near the road- 
side, and there another, sheltered behind a clump of 
trees, many of them with inviting seats for idlers, and 
all with cheerful fronts toward the weary traveler. 
The sign-boards were elevated upon high and heavy 
posts, and their golden letters winking in the sun, 
ogled the wayfarer from the hot roadbed and gave 
promise of good cheer, while the big trough, over- 
flowing with clear, fresh water, and the ground be- 
low it sprinkled with droppings of fragrant pepper- 
mint, lent a charm to the scene that was well-nigh 

entrancing. 

. — Thomas B. Searight. 



EARLY STATE GOVERNMENT. 

In the brief space of four years the State govern- 
ment of Maryland accomplished much work. The 
task of organization was well carried out. A new 
form of administration dependent upon the people 
replaced the old provincial government, in which the 
executive and the Upper House of the Assembly had 
been subject to the Crown or the Proprietary. The 
differentiation of the legislative, the executive and 
the judicial functions marked this successful transi- 
tion to the State government. 

The attitude assumed by Maryland awakened pub- 
lic attention to the necessity for a common owner- 
ship of the Western lands. As a result of so firm a 
stand the States asserting exclusive domain over the 
territory were ultimately induced to cede these claims 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 205 

for the general benefit. This achievement, largely 
due to the influence of Maryland, was of the great- 
est importance in the national development. Much 
aid was extended to the Continental Army. The State 
government even risked unpopular measures, impos- 
ing drafts in order to obtain sufficient troops for the 
campaign. At least one-tenth of the available mili- 
tary population remained constantly in the field, 
while each year the State contributed toward the 
varied expenses of the army about three-tenths per 
cent, oi its entire taxable basis. In addition it was 
necessary to keep up an expensive navy, to pay the 
unusually heavy cost of collecting taxes, and to meet 
the other expenses of government. A large part of 
the Eastern Shore, one of the most productive regions 
of the State, was almost constantly disturbed by in- 
surrections. ... In combating Toryism the State 
government displayed much conservatism, enforcing 
harsh laws only when such action was absolutely 
necessary. . . . The Assembly, as the sole source of 
legislative power, assumed the chief authority. The 
Lower House, rather more radical in its tendencies, 
was held in check by the more conservative Senate. 
The Governor and Council, aided by the local execu- 
tive officials, efficiently enforced the laws passed by 
the Assembly. In a crisis neither Governor Johnson 
nor Governor Lee hesitated to assume the initiative 
by exceeding the legal limits of their power. This 
action, which was principally taken to obtain much- 
needed supplies or to pacify the State, was always 
marked by discretion. 

From the inauguration of the State government, 
February 5, 1777, to the final ratification of the Ar- 



206 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

tides of Confederation, March 1, 1781, Maryland was 
an independent State, entering into the deliberations 
of Congress as a sovereign ally. . . . The sovereignty 
which the British Crown had possessed reverted to 
the State government. With respect to this particu- 
lar State, Congress assumed and exercised such power 
only with the express approval of the legislative au- 
thority. This conclusion is in accord with the doc- 
trines advanced by the advocates of State sovereignty. 

— Beverly W. Bond, Jr. 



THE CHESAPEAKE OYSTER. 

There these motionless epicures, the oysters, lie, 
with open mouths, while the sweet, salt sluices pour 
past them and return every day, bearing particles of 
invisible nourishment from groves of fruit unknown 
to us, perhaps from orchards of marine peach and 
the kernels of luscious fruits, which the dull micro- 
scope of the naturalist never finds. The predatory 
crab trundles his piratical hulk up those crystal alleys, 
and filches the oyster from his cell, or sometimes 
cradles his young in the oyster's shell, hoping that 
the vagabond may grow up undetected to a like vo- 
luptuous esculence. But a hearty democrat is our 
oyster. He seizes upon a fisherman's shoe or a tin 
kettle dropped overboard or a bit of a wreck and 
covers it by a system of animal electro-plating so that 
it often comes to the surface crystallized, colonized, 
a cluster of aquatic grapes for Neptune to plant ov 
Olympus ! 

—George Alfred Townsend, 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 207 
THE FEDERAL BULL-DOG. 

Born at New Brunswick, N. J., in 1744, Luther 
Martin, who was of English stock, was the third of 
nine children. In 1757 he went to a grammar school, 
where he learned the rudiments of Latin, thence to 
Princeton College, where he graduated in 1763 at the 
head of a class of thirty-five. . . . Two days after 
graduation the lad of nineteen decided on law as 
his calling, and, with a few dollars in his pocket and 
a few friends for company, set out for Cecil county, 
Maryland, with letters to a Rev. Mr. Hunt. This 
gentleman kindly treated him and gave him letters 
by aid of which Martin secured a school at Queens- 
town, Queen Anne's county, Maryland, where he 
taught till April, 1770, living with and using the li- 
brary of Solomon Wright, father of Robert Wright, 
later a United States Senator from Maryland. His 
means were scanty, and he was then, as ever after, in 
pecuniary stress, for he was improvident by nature. 
He ran in debt, and when he stopped school-teaching 
to devote his whole time to law study, he was ar- 
rested on five different warrants of attachment. 

In 1771 Martin was admitted to the bar, and in 
1772 went to Williamsburg, Va., where he remained 
during a term of court, making many valuable friends, 
among them Patrick Henry. He soon began practice 
in Accomac and Northampton, Va., was admitted 
as an attorney in the courts of Worcester and Somer- 
set counties, Maryland, and took up his residence in 
Somerset. His income soon reached the large sum, 
for that day, of 1,000 pounds per year, and was never 
less till the Revolutionary trouble began. That in 



208 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

the very inception of his legal practice he displayed 
ability that insured success and fame therein, is 
evinced by the recorded fact that at one of his early 
terms before the Williamsburg Court he defended 
38 persons of whom 29 were acquitted. In 1774 Mar- 
tin was appointed one of the commissioners of his 
county to oppose the claims of Great Britain; also a 
member of the convention called at Annapolis to the 
same end. In this, his first appearance in the arena 
of politics, he at once took strong patriotic ground. 
About this time he published a reply to the address 
sent out by the Howes from their ships in the Chesa- 
peake Bay, also an address, "To the inhabitants of the 
peninsula between the Delaware and the Chesapeake 
to the southwest of the British lines," which was 
circulated in printed hand-bills. 

In 1778, by the advice of Judge Samuel Chase, Mar- 
tin was appointed Attorney-General of Maryland. In 
this position he most vigorously prosecuted (almost 
persecuted) the Tories of his State, making thereby 
life-long enemies as well as warm friends, for through- 
out his whole life he was never neutral in anything. 
In 1787 Martin was sent by the Maryland Legisla- 
ture as one of the delegates to the convention at Phila- 
delphia which framed the Federal Constitution. In 
the debates of that famous body he took an active 
part. In view of the fact that not many years after 
he was christened by his old antagonist, Jefferson, 
"the Federal Bull-Dog,"* it is noteworthy that his 
speeches in convention were in vehement opposition 
to the Constitution and that he left the body forever 
rather than sign the instrument. He kept up his op- 
position on his return to Maryland and laid before 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 209 

the Legislature of that State some of the ablest argu- 
ments against ratification ever made. It is remark- 
able that the next public appearance of Luther Mar- 
tin in a matter of national interest was as a staunch 
supporter of this very Federal Constitution, the 
adoption of which he had so ardently opposed, and 
fully as remarkable that such appearance should be 
as counsel for a Federal official — his warm personal 
friend — who had been no less bitter in his opposition 
to the same instrument. This appearance was as one 
of the counsel in the impeachment trial of Judge 
Chase before the United States Senate in 1804. . . . 

In 1805 Martin resigned as Attorney-General after 
twenty-seven years' consecutive service. Despite his 
years (he had passed 60) he had still the largest prac- 
tice of any lawyer in the State of which he was the 
most talked-of citizen, but that he was not mercenary 
is shown by his next appearance in a great public 
trial, where his love for the accused and hatred of 
Jefferson led him to take a most active part. This 
was the famous trial of Aaron Burr at Richmond in 
1807; with the possible exception of the impeachment 
trial of Andrew Johnson, the greatest State trial in 
our history. Martin was again of the winning side, 
for despite popular belief in Burr's guilt, at least in 
intention, which found voice in the jury's verdict of 
"not proved to be guilty," the case of the government 
was hopeless after Judge Marshall's ruling that the 
assembly and enlistment of men on Blennerhassett's 
Island showed no overt act. In one of his letters Jeffer- 
Island showed no over act. In one of his letters Jeffer- 
son expresses his opinion of Martin in these terms : 
"Shall we move to commit Luther Martin as a parti- 
ceps criminis with Burr? Grayball will fix upon him 



210 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

misprision at least, and at any rate his evidence will 
put down this unprincipled and impudent Federal bull- 
dog, and add another proof that the most clamorous 
defenders of Burr are all his accomplices. It will 
explain why Luther Martin flew so hastily to the aid 
of 'his honorable friend,' abandoning his clients and 
their property during a session of a principal court 
of Maryland, now filled, I am told, with the clamors 
and ruin of his clients." ... In 1814 Martin was 
appointed Chief Judge of the Court of Oyer and 
Terminer for Baltimore city and county, a position 
he filled very satisfactorily till the abolition of the 
court in 1818. In February, 1818, forty years from 
the date of his first admission, he was reappointed 
Attorney-General of Maryland, but his powers soon 
waning an assistant had to be appointed, and he ap- 
peared in but few cases. ... In 1820 he had a stroke 
of paralysis and became entirely dependent upon his 
friends, as he had never saved any money, which 
state of affairs led the Maryland Legislature in 1822 
to pass an act which is unparalleled in American his- 
tory. This act required every lawyer in the State 
to pay annually a license fee of five dollars, the en- 
tire proceeds to be paid over to certain designated 
trustees "for the use of Luther Martin." 

— Henry P. Goddard. 



PINKNEY, "THE BOAST OF MARYLAND." 

Mr. Pinkney was actively engaged in his profes- 
sional labors in the Supreme Court during the session 
of 1822. He also took part at the same period in the 
discussion of the bankrupt bills in the Senate and 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 211 

was preparing for the debate on the Maryland propo- 
sitions, relating to the appropriation of the public 
lands belonging to the Union for the purposes of 
education. 

But his laborious life was drawing to a close. He 
was taken ill on February 17, 1822, and died on 
the 25th of the same month. John Randolph of Roan- 
oke, in announcing his death in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, said : 

"I rise to announce to the House the not unlooked 
for death of a man who filled the first place, in the 
public estimation, in the first profession in that esti- 
mation, in this or in any other country. We have been 
talking of General Jackson and a greater than he is 
not here ; but gone forever. I allude, sir, to the 
boast of Maryland and the pride of the United States 
— the pride of all of us, but more particularly the 
pride and ornament of the profession of which you, 
Mr. Speaker (Philip P. Barbour), are a member and 
an eminent one. I will not say that our loss is irre- 
parable, because such a man as has existed may exist 
again. There has been a Homer; there has been a 
Shakespeare ; there has been a Newton ; there has 
been a Milton ; there may be a Pinkney, but there is 
none now." 



WILLIAM PINKNEY, STATESMAN. 

His last speech in the Senate was in reply to Mr. 
Rufus King, and was the master effort of his life. 
The subject, the place, the audience, the antagonist, 
were all such as to excite him to the utmost exertion. 



212 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

The subject was a national controvery, convulsing the 
Union and menacing its dissolution ; the place was 
the American Senate ; the audience was Europe and 
America ; the antagonist was princeps Senatus, illus- 
trious for thirty years of diplomatic and senatorial 
service and for great dignity of life and character. 

He had ample time for preparation and availed him- 
self of it. Mr. King had spoken the session before 
and published the substance of his speeches (for there 
were two of them) after the adjournment of Congress. 
They were the signal guns for the Missouri contro- 
versy. It was to these published speeches that Mr. 
Pinkney replied, and with the interval between the 
two sessions to prepare. 

It was a dazzling and overpowering reply, with the 
prestige of having the union and harmony of the 
States for its object and crowded with rich material. 
The most brilliant part of it was a highly-wrought 
and splendid amplification (with illustrations from 
Greek and Roman 'history) of that passage in Mr. 
Burke's speech upon "Conciliation with the Colonies," 
in which, and in looking to the elements of American 
resistance to British power, he looks to the spirit of 
the slave-holding colonies as a main ingredient and 
attributes to the masters of slaves, who are not them- 
selves slaves, the highest love of liberty and the most 
difficult task of subjugation. It was the most gor- 
geous speech ever delivered in the Senate and the 
most applauded. 

— Thomas Hart Benton. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 213 

IMPEACHMENT OF JUDGE CHASE. 

The occasion was a momentous one, and so recog- 
nized by those who participated therein, as here was 
to be fought one of the first great battles of our na- 
tional history between the advocates of diverse views 
as to the construction of the National Constitution, 
and the question to be settled whether the judicial 
department of our government could be controlled and 
manipulated at the pleasure of either of the other de- 
partments. That President Jefferson instigated this 
trial of the most vulnerable member of the Supreme 
Court in order to make that body less an obstacle 
to his methods of government is most probable. 

The Senate was presided over by Vice-President 
Aaron Burr, who, though he had recently slain the 
ablest Federalist of them all, and was not of favor 
with his own party for his selfish effort to push him- 
self into the Presidential chair designed for Jefferson 
by the party as a whole in the last contest, yet pre- 
sided with a grace and fairness that won universal 
recognition. "With the dignity and impartiality of 
an angel, but with the rigor of a devil," said an op- 
position newspaper. 

Among the Senators sitting in judgment on the 
case was the future President, John Quincy Adams, 
who steadily voted in favor of the accused, and many 
other wearers of historic names, such as Bayard of 
Delaware, Breckenridge of Kentucky, Dayton of New 
Jersey, Giles of Virginia, Tracey of Connecticut, Pick- 
ering of Massachusetts, and Sumpter of South Caro- 
lina. The chief manager of the impeachment on the 
part of the House was John Randolph of Roanoke, 



214 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

then but thirty-one years of age and already the 
leader of the House, yet more feared than loved for 
his sarcastic eloquence. 

Around Judge Chase, who was fully able to plead 
his own cause yet shrewd enough to draw about him 
the ablest advocates of his day, there gathered as 
counsel, his life-long friends, Luther Martin, Charles 
Lee, late Attorney-General of the United States, and 
Robert Goodloe Harper, who had but just ceased to 
be the Federal leader in the House and who has passed 
into history as one of Maryland's greatest advocates. 
Of lesser fame were Joseph Hopkinson, author of 
"Hail Columbia," and Philip Barton Key, of a family 
identified with our other great national anthem, "The 
Star-Spangled Banner." The charges against Judge 
Chase were embraced in eight articles. Their general 
drift was that he had violated his official oath and 
been unmindful of his judicial duties in two cases 
tried before his court and that he had improperly 
charged a grand jury, making his charge a political 
tirade against the party in power. Judge Chase was 
undoubtedly an obstinate and bitterly prejudiced old 
Federalist, who had been very over-bearing to mem- 
bers of the bar and most injudicious in his remarks 
concerning President Jefferson's official course. Yet 
that he was not deserving impeachment the result of 
a trial before a body containing a majority politically 
opposed to him and to whom Chase's "bacon face," 
as an opposing journal derisively termed it, was not 
more obnoxious than his political course, clearly in- 
dicates. The wisdom of the verdict is at this day 
pretty generally admitted. As is well-known the im- 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 215 

peachment was not sustained, only three of the eight 
articles receiving even a majority of the votes of the 
Senators, none the requisite two-thirds. 

— Henry P. Goddard. 



JOHN EAGER HOWARD. 

At the battle of Germantown, October 4, 1777, Col- 
onel Josias Carvil Hall (Fourth Maryland Regiment), 
was disabled by an accident, and the command of the 
regiment, during the hottest part of the combat, de- 
volved upon Major Howard. He endured with Wash- 
ington's forces the hardships of the dreadful winter at 
Valley Forge, and took a part In the. battle of Mon- 
mouth. In 1780 Congress united the seven Maryland 
regiments with the single regiment from Delaware, 
making two brigades under Generals Smallwood and 
Gist, and sent this force, numbering about two thou- 
sand men, under the command of Major-General Baron 
DeKalb, to the South, where Gates commanded in 
chief. At the battle of Camden, when a panic seized 
the new militia levies, DeKalb placed himself on foot 
at the head of the second Maryland brigade and called 
upon them to check the British advance. Vain were 
the furious charges of Rawdon ; the brigade stood 
like a rock, forced back the British with the bayonet, 
and almost turned defeat into victory. "Lieutenant- 
Colonel Howard, at the head of Williams' regiment, 
(Williams being on Gates' staff) drove the opposing 
enemy before him." But the overwhelming force of 
Cornwallis, and the loss of the gallant DeKalb, who 



216- MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

fell mortally wounded, compelled the brigade to re- 
tire and the day was lost. 

Soon after Greene assumed command of the South- 
ern department, a detachment of chosen troops was 
placed under the command of Brigadier-General Dan- 
iel Morgan. It consisted of a body of picked men of 
the Maryland Line under Lieutenant-Colonel Howard, 
two companies of Virginia militia, and 100 dragoons 
under Colonel William Washington. Against this 
force Cornwallis sent Tarleton's Legion of infantry, 
cavalry and artillery. The forces met on January 17, 
1781, at a place called the Cowpens, in South Carolina. 
Morgan, who had been reinforced by a considerable 
body of militia, placed these in the front, and in the 
rear of them and in the center of his main line were 
drawn up Howard's Marylanders, 280 strong, with 
militia on their flanks. 

Tarleton opened the engagement with a heavy ar- 
tillery fire, followed by a charge of cavalry. The mil- 
itia in the first line met them gallantly but at last 
broke and fled, and the British, thinking the day was 
their own, fiercely charged Howard's Marylanders, 
who stood firm, and met them with a deadly fire. Ex- 
asperated by this unexpected resistance, the enemy 
threw their whole weight against the Maryland line, 
which refused to yield an inch. At last the British 
began to waver, and Tarleton, perceiving this, ordered 
up his reserve, and his whole force moved again to 
the attack. The British line, thus lengthened, threat- 
ened to outflank the Marylanders' right, to meet which 
Howard ordered his right company to change front. 
The men, mistaking the order, faced to the rear, and 
slowly retired, followed by the rest of the line in good 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 217 

order. Morgan, in alarm, rode up to Howard, "but" 
(to use Howard's own words) — "I soon removed his 
fears by pointing to the line and observing that men 
were not beaten who retired in that order. In a 
minute we had a perfect line ; the enemy were now 
very near us ; our men commenced a very destructive 
fire, which they little expected, and a few rounds oc- 
casioned great disorder in their ranks. While in this 
confusion, I ordered a charge with the bayonet, which 
order was obeyed with alacrity." 

The shock of this charge was irresistible, the British 
broke and fled in confusion. In the pursuit, Howard 
found himself in the midst of the 71st Grenadiers, 
whom he called upon to surrender. The men laid 
down their arms, and the officers delivered up their 
swords, of which he had at one time seven in his 
own hands. 

The moral effect of this victory was decisive. It 
proved that the Continental levies could successfully 
resist the veteran British regulars. It raised the 
drooping spirits of the Americans, and by encouraging 
enlistment, it enabled Greene to carry out his plans. 
The turning point of this glorious day was Howard's 
bayonet charge; and after the Cowpens, Greene' or- 
dered that the Marylanders should use the bayonet in 
every battle. 

Greene next confronted Cornwallis on March 15, at 
Guilford Court House, North Carolina. At the first 
attack the militia in the front broke and fled, and 
the enemy pressed hard upon the Virginia militia in 
the second line, who also gave way, after a gallant 
resistance. The brunt of the battle now fell upon 
the third line, consisting of Maryland and Virginia 



218 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

regulars, the former under the command of Colonel 
Gunby, with Howard as Lieutenant-Colonel. These 
bravely sustained the shock, and poured in a heavy 
fire at close quarters, causing the enemy to recoil. 
Seizing the critical moment, they charged with the 
bayonet, and drove the British back. Colonel Gunby 
being disabled by the fall of his horse, Howard took 
the command, and charged the enemy again and again, 
while Washington's cavalry fell upon their flank and 
threw them in disorder. At this moment Howard's 
men rushed forward with fixed bayonets and swept 
the British from the field, the pursuit being only 
checked by the enemy's artillery. Greene, still pur- 
suing his strategy of fighting and falling back, faced 
the enemy again at Hobkirk's Hill on April 25th, where 
a mistaken order lost the day, despite the heroic ef- 
forts of Williams, Gunby and Howard. In this en- 
gagement, Colonel Ford of the Second Maryland was 
killed, and Howard succeeded to the command of 
the regiment. 

In August Greene felt strong enough to take the 
aggressive, and moved to attack the British, who, fall- 
ing back before him, made a stand at Eutaw Springs. 
Here Greene attacked them on September 8, 1781. 
His forces were disposed in two lines, the first com- 
posed of militia from the Carolinas, and the second 
of Continental troops from North Carolina, Virginia 
and Maryland. The Marylanders under Williams 
were in two battalions, commanded by Colonel How- 
ard and Major Hardman. The militia in the first line 
attacked with great courage and firmness, but were 
at last overpowered and fell back, the North Carolina 
Continentals taking their place, while the Marylanders 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 219 

were held in reserve for the final struggle. The bat- 
tle raged with great fury, until the British brought 
up their reserve, when the Americans began to give 
ground. Greene then ordered forward the Maryland- 
ers, who advanced within forty yards of the enemy, 
delivered their fire, and rushed to the charge. The 
British center gave way, and in a few minutes the 
whole line was in headlong flight. 

The rout would have been complete, had not the 
Americans stopped to plunder the enemy's camp, 
which gave the British officers the opportunity of 
seizing a stone house, and rallying their men. 
Greene's ammunition being expended, he was unable 
to dislodge them, and retired. In the night the 
enemy destroyed their stores and retreated to Charles- 
ton, leaving their wounded behind. 

Greene wrote to Smallwood, of the engagement at 
Eutaw Springs : "Nothing could exceed the gallantry 
of the Maryland line, Colonels Williams, Howard, and 
all the officers exhibited acts of uncommon bravery ; 
and the free use of the bayonet gave us the victory. 
Many brave fellows have fallen, and a great number 
of officers are wounded ; among the number is Lieut- 
Col. Howard. The Maryland line made a charge that 
exceeded anything I ever saw. But, alas ! their ranks 
are thin, and their officers are few." 

It was at the attack of the stone house that Howard 
fell, shot through the shoulder. His wound was so 
severe that he was sent home to receive proper surgi- 
cal attention, though he retained his position in the 
army. 

General Greene gave him a letter to James Calhoun, 
the first mayor of Baltimore, in which the General 



220 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

says : "This will be handed you by Colonel Howard, 
as good an officer as the world affords ; he has great 
ability, and the best dispositions to promote the serv- 
ice. My own obligations to him are great ; the public's 
more so. He deserves a statue no less than the Roman 
and Grecian heroes." 

As a soldier he was always ready for duty and 
prompt in its execution, and seemed to be equal to 
any emergency he was called on to face. Wherever 
placed he was always sure to be heard of favorably 
before an action was over. Every time that orders 
or accident placed him in charge of a command in 
action, the men of Maryland seemed to do their best, 
and his name will always be linked with that of the 
Maryland Line. 

Colonel Howard's wound, from the effects of which 
he never entirely recovered, disabled him for active 
service in the field during the rest of the war. 



THE MARYLAND LOYALISTS. 



The "Tories" of Maryland were Marylanders who 
remained loyal to the British Government during the 
Revolution — some of them from motives which were 
hardly creditable, but many of them because of con- 
scientious convictions. Among the latter was Jonathan 
Pinkney, the father of William Pinkney. Jonathan 
Pinkney resided at Annapolis, and was "a man of the 
highest probity, and character," who "adhered with 
a mistaken firmness to the cause of the mother coun- 
try, and suffered severely the consequences of his con- 
scientiousness," his property being confiscated, as was 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 221 

that of many of those who thought as he did. As a 
war measure, Governor Tom Johnson and the As- 
sembly adopted the expedient of confiscating the 
estates of all who did not lend aid and support to the 
new government, the proceeds being applied to the 
expenses of maintaining the patriot cause. 

Another noted Loyalist was Daniel Dulany, the 
great lawyer, the "Antilon" of the famous controversy 
with "First Citizen/' Charles Carroll of Carrollton. 
"Though a Loyalist at last, Dulany stood up manfully 
against the Stamp Act," and to his learning and cour- 
age the Revolution was indebted for much of the firm 
ground of the contest with Great Britain. Other noted 
Loyalists — and the clergy of the Church of England 
and the Methodist preachers furnished a considerable 
number of them— were Rev. Henry Addison, Daniel 
Dulany Addison, Rev. Jonathan Boucher, tutor of 
Washington's step-son ; Rev. John Bowie, of Prince 
George's, Montgomery, Worcester and Talbot; John 
Buchanan, George Chalmers, the author; James 
Christie, Jr., of Baltimore; Lloyd Dulany, of Annap- 
olis ; Rev. William Edmiston, of Baltimore ; Rev. John 
Eversfield, of Prince George's; Rev. Freeborn Garret- 
son, of Harford; William Goddard, the Baltimore 
printer; Charles Gordon, a Cecil lawyer; Caleb Jones, 
sheriff of Somerset; Philip Barton Key, of Southern 
Maryland, who afterward represented a Maryland dis- 
trict in Congress; Thomas Lambden, of Worcester; 
Rev. John Patterson, of Kent, who was chaplain of the 
Maryland Loyalist regiment; Francis Sanderson, a 
Baltimore justice holding Lord Baltimore's commis- 
sion ; Rev. John Scott, the chaplain of Governor Eden, 
and a rector in Frederick county; Dr. John Smythe, 



222 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

of Charles county, who was captured with Connolly ; 
Anthony Stewart, of Annapolis ; Captain Jonathan 
Stirling, Dr. Ferdinand Smyth Stuart ; Dr. Alexander 
Williamson, of St. Mary's and Frederick ; James 
Frisby, Robert Alexander. 

"Disaffected and disloyal" Marylanders disciplined 
by the Council of Safety and by the Revolutionary 
governments in Maryland are frequently met with in 
the records of the time. Dixon Quinton, of Worcester, 
was one of them. He was charged with "importing 
salt contrary to the resolves of the Continental Con- 
gress." During the war a corps in the British service 
was composed of fugitives from Maryland, known as 
the "Maryland Loyalists," most of the survivors of 
whom settled at Nova Scotia at the peace, although 
a few returned to the State. In 1783 a body of these 
Loyalists embarked at New York for Nova Scotia in 
the transport ship Martha, which was wrecked near 
the end of the passage. Out of a total of about one 
hundred and sixty men, women and children only 
sixty-five were saved. "Lieutenant Henley, Lieuten- 
ant Stirling and Dr. Stafford got upon a piece of the 
wreck and floated at sea two days and two nights, 
nearly to the waist in water, during which time Stir- 
ling perished. On the third day the survivors drifted 
to an island, where they remained seven days, poorly 
clad and without fire or food. The sixty-two others 
who escaped were taken from rafts by four fishing 
vessels which belonged to Massachusetts, and landed 
at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia." When Philip Barton 
Key was sent to the Tenth Congress his seat was 
contested on the ground of his connection as an of- 
ficer with the Maryland Loyalist regiment, and his 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 223 

defense is interesting as showing his changed view- 
point: 

"He said that his constituents knew the very cir- 
cumstances of the follies of his early life, and his 
enemies had represented to them that, having been 
over twenty years ago in the British army, he was 
not a proper person to represent them. The people 
scouted the idea ; they knew me from my infancy ; but 
I had returned to my country, like the prodigal son 
to his father ; had felt as an American should feel ; was 
received, forgiven, of which the most convincing 
proof is my election to this House." 



DR. JOHN CONNOLLY. 



Dr. John Connolly, in the frontier troubles of West- 
ern Maryland just preceding the Revolution, was a 
prominent figure and, although residing in Augusta 
county, Virginia, was connected with many incidents 
of Maryland history of that time. He was alleged 
to be the prime mover in what is called the "White- 
Eyes Conspiracy" — a projected outbreak of Indians 
under a chief of that name — for the purpose of harry- 
ing the frontier settlements of this State and Virginia. 
Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, upon 
a suggestion of Connolly in 1775, gave his consent to 
a plan formulated by the latter to draw the Western 
Indians into a confederacy and use them in the ap- 
proaching struggle as allies of the English. Con- 
nolly is known to have communicated with the In- 
dians and to have visited General Gage at Boston 
to secure his co-operation, and to have received an 



224 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

appointment as lieutenant-colonel in the British army. 
After returning to Virginia and consulting with Dun- 
more, Connolly attempted to make his way through 
Maryland to Detroit, where a force was to be raised 
to invade Western Maryland and Virginia. He was 
captured near Hagerstown and confined in prison 
for a long time. 

In 1783 Connolly published in London "A Narra- 
tive of the Transactions, Imprisonment and Suffer- 
ings of John Connolly, an American Loyalist, and 
lieutenant-colonel in His Majesty's Service, in which 
are shewn the unjustifiable proceedings of Congress 
in his treatment and detention." In this Connolly 
asked for compensation from the British government 
for his trials during the war, and for the losses occa- 
sioned by his loyalty. The following extract well pre- 
sents the feeling entertained by that body of Ameri- 
cans, somewhat inconsiderable in numbers, but strong 
in personal standing and influence, who remained 
faithful to the king during the Revolution : 

"In former wars, when American subjects acted in 
conformity to the orders of their sovereign and were 
commissioned by the royal representatives to military 
command, the pecuniary advantage annexed to the 
respective stations in which they appeared arose from 
the acts of general assembly of the governments 
wherein they resided and this provision, more ample 
or circumscribed, depended upon the temper or gen- 
erosity of the different legislatures. The late unfor- 
tunate dispute, wherein not only the prerogative of 
the king, but the supremacy of the Parliament of his 
kingdom, was the litigated cause between Britain and 
her colonies, and in the maintenance of which the 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 225 

American loyalist who attempted to support this sys- 
tem as constituted took an active part, changed totally 
the nature of his political connexions. [He is] cut 
off from his former dependence by the issue of the 
war, excluded from the privileges of the community to 
which he belonged and deprived of his property as a 
mark of its displeasure and disapprobation of his con- 
duct." 

Describing a meeting with Washington, about the 
time of the surrender at Yorktown, when Connolly, 
for a second time, fell into the hands of the patriots 
as a prisoner, he says : "I was now to see a man with 
whom I had formerly been on a footing of intimacy, 
I may say of friendship. Politics might induce us to 
meet like enemies in the field, but should not have 
made us personally so. I had small time for reflec- 
tion ; we met him on horseback, coming to view the 
camp. I can only say the friendly sentiments he once 
publicly professed for me no longer existed." 



MARYLAND TEA PARTY. 



In the general agitation in the colonies against 
"taxation without representation," nowhere was the 
spirit of opposition to the course of the mother coun- 
try more outspoken and determined than in Mary- 
land. From 1739, when her assembly successfully 
opposed the principle of taxation without the consent 
of the people, to 1765, when Parliament made a de- 
termined effort to levy the taxes, Maryland main- 
tained a steady and increasingly bitter fight against 
them ; so that when, in 1767, the tax on tea came, it 



226 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

was like a spark dropping on powder. The people 
were incensed. Throughout the colony almost univer- 
sal protest followed, which came to a climax in a 
famous meeting held in the old Hungerford Tavern, 
in Rockville, when protests were drawn up against 
the closing of the port of Boston and supplies were 
sent to the almost starving people of that city. Es- 
pecially in the Whig Club of what are now Howard 
and Montgomery counties was the excitement intense. 
Of this the hero of the Maryland Tea Party, Charles 
Alexander Warfield, of Bushy Park, a physician and 
major of a battalion of militia, was president and 
probably the first man in the colony to propose a 
separation from the mother country. At the height 
of this general excitement the news came that the 
brig Peggy Stewart had arrived at Annapolis with 
a cargo of tea for her owner, Anthony Stewart, well 
known as an ardent loyalist. A meeting of the club 
was at once called and the ardent young patriot, in 
an impassioned speech, the words of which have not, 
unfortunately, come down to us, urged them to re- 
sent the insult to their colony and the threatened de- 
struction of their liberties. The response to his ap- 
peal to march, at once, to Annapolis and destroy the 
Peggy Stewart and her cargo was unanimous. Boldly, 
in broad daylight, without the least disguise or at- 
tempt to conceal their purpose, they rode rapidly to 
the residence of Mr. Stewart. Riding in front of his 
men, Dr. Warfield called on Stewart to accept one of 
two proposition. As repeated by an eye witness, he 
said : 

"You must either go with me and apply the torch 
to your own vessel or hang before your own door." 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 227 

A gallows was quickly erected in front of the house. 
The rope dangling from it, the determined face of the 
patriot, together with his well-known reputation for 
fearless and prompt action, were very convincing argu- 
ments. There was no mistaking the spirit of War- 
field. There was a moment's hesitation and then 
Stewart accepted the inevitable, came down the steps 
and led the patriots to his vessel, to which he applied 
the torch. 

Home rode the patriot band, the leader to his bride 
of a year, the others to mothers, wives and sweet- 
hearts, having for weal or woe committed themselves, 
their loved ones and their colony to a war which for 
eight long, bitter years, would demand of Maryland 
the sacrifice of all her people and the blood of her 
choicest sons. Of the men who that day burned the 
Peggy Stewart many marched away afterwards to die 
on the battlefield, but the leader lived until January 
29, 1813. 

— John Ellery Tultle. 



LOGAN AND CRESAP. 

For over a century "Logan's Speech" has been re- 
peated by every school boy and admired by every 
cultivated person as a gem of masculine eloquence. 
Unluckily, it did not rehearse the Indian's wrongs and 
revenge alone. It gave point to its artless rhetoric by 
charging those wrongs and imputing the frightful re- 
sults of that revenge to Michael Cresap, and, in pro- 
portion as both were dreadful in character and poign- 
ant in statement, the hatred of mankind for the alleged 
perpetrator became intense and lasting. The speech, 



228 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

it is well known, was first published in the newspapers 
of America in 1774, but its remarkable popularity was 
secured by the importance given to it by Mr. Jeffer- 
son as illustrating Indian character and genius, by its 
publication, with comments, in his "Notes on Vir- 
ginia." Accordingly every American, and multitudes 
of educated Europeans, learned to pity Logan and hate 
the name of Cresap ; yet Cresap certainly never de- 
served their opprobrium, and it is quite possible their 
sympathetic compassion for Logan might have been 
considerably mitigated. 

The speech of Logan, which has been so long cele- 
brated as the finest specimen of Indian eloquence, 
dwindles into a reported conversation with an out- 
burst from a blood-stained savage, excited, perhaps, 
when he delivered it, as well by the cruelties he had 
committed or by liquor; false in the allegations as to 
Cresap, and, at last having been conveyed to a camp 
about six miles distant, in the memory of Gibson, 
written down and read by proxy to the council of Lord 
Dunmore. Gibson, it is true, states in his testimony 
that he corrected Logan on the spot when he made 
the charge against Cresap, for he knew his innocence, 
but either the Indian did not withdraw it or the mes- 
senger felt himself compelled to deliver it as originally 
framed. It was untrue also as to the slaughter of all 
his relations, women and children ; for years after his 
relatives and his wife survived, while it is known he 
never had any children. 

The speech is as follows : "I appeal to any white 
man to say if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry 
and he gave him not meat ; if ever he came cold and 
naked and he clothed him not? During the course of 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 229 

the last long and bloody war Logan remained idle in 
his camp, an advocate of peace. Such was my love 
for the whites that my countrymen pointed as I passed 
and said : 'Logan is the friend of the white man !' 
I had even thought to have lived with you; but for 
the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, last spring, 
in cold blood and unprovoked murdered all the rela- 
tives of Logan, not even sparing my women and chil- 
dren. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins 
of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. 
I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully 
glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejoice at 
the beams of peace ; but do not harbor a thought that 
mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He 
will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there 
to mourn for Logan? Not one!" 7 

—Brantz Mayer. 



ADAM RUSH. 



A country boy in a country town is more lost than 
a town boy in a big city. In a city nobody cares for 
the town boy. In a town everybody takes some sort 
of interest in the country boy and the country boy 
knows it. 

It seemed to Adam that they were all very civil. 

There was another clerk in the store — a rather grand 

j young man, whose black hair, so securely pasted in 

immovable waves over his low forehead, was a matter 

! of much perplexity to Adam. He was Mr. Salt's extra 

| help. He came in later than the others and had his 

hours for meals clearly defined. He was very strait in 



230 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

his manner, very didactic in his speech, very certain 
in liis arguments with his customers. 

"C. Coleman Jones," said Mr. Salt, "is a good deal 
of a peacock ; but it is well to have such as him around, 
and he can look prettier on a small salary than any 
man I know of. I wouldn't trust him as I am going 
to trust you, Adam, but that does not mean that I 
don't appreciate his usefulness. A peacock isn't much 
use around a farmhouse, but he adds a little to the 
looks of things and C. Coleman can part his hair in 
the middle with the best of them." 

But C. Coleman Jones did not particularly admire 
Adam, although he condescended to introduce him to 
a few of his friends, who being something like C. Cole- 
man, did not entertain any great admiration for the 
young man from Wheatley. 

Adam decided to go to Sunday School, although he 
was told that it was not the custom of the young 
men of his age to do so — they have become too manly 
for that. But he went. He was a silent pupil, but 
he greatly admired the earnestness of Miss Crawford 
and her knowledge of the lesson. When the exercises 
were over she detained him. 

"I am very glad to welcome you here," she said, 
"and I hope you will become one of our workers. So 
many of the young men give up Sunday School. I 
do not know why, but they do. You won't, will you?" 
He promised. 

"We must get hold of that young man," said Mr. 
Weir to Miss Crawford. 

"Yes, we must get hold of him and keep hold of 
him," replied the young woman. 

And they did to his inestimable benefit in the future. 

—Lynn R. Meekins. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 231 

THE JEW IN MARYLAND. 



The Jews of Baltimore have always played a prom- 
inent part in its progress in every branch of endeavor. 
The first record is that of the Collmus family, which 
arrived in 1798 from Bohemia, and in 1808 the six sons 
of Israel J. Cohen came with their mother from Rich- 
mond, Virginia. Their names figure most prominently 
in the emancipation struggle of 1818-26, during which 
time the "Jew Bill" was debated in the Legislature 
of Maryland. This bill proposed to "consider the jus- 
tice and expediency of extending to those persons pro- 
fessing the Jewish religion the same privileges that 
are enjoyed by Christians." Immediately upon its 
passage and its ratification in the legislative session 
of 1825-1826 it was applied practically to the election 
of Solomon Etting and Jacob I. Cohen, Jr., to seats 
in the City Council of Baltimore. 

After 1826 the recorded history of the Jews of Bal- 
timore ceases to be the history of prominent individ- 
I uals and becomes that of a community. Almost coin- 
cidentally with the removal of civil disabilities occurs 
the first of a series of regular meetings for religious 
i services whose continuity has been uninterrupted. Ac- 
! cording to the recollections of one participant still 
i living, this meeting took place at Holliday street, near 
] Pleasant, at the house of Zalma Rehine, a former resi- 
dent of Richmond, Virginia, and an uncle of Isaac 
Leeser. In 1837 a three-story brick building was 
j bought at the southwest corner of Harrison street and 
Aetna lane. In 1845 the congregation moved to Lloyd 
and Watson streets and worshiped there until 1889, 



232 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

when the fine building now occupied at Madison ave- 
nue and Robert street was erected. 

The Jews of Baltimore have participated fully in the 
civic life of the town and State and have taken some 
part in national affairs. In the city, Jews have filled 
numerous minor offices, notably as Councilmen, jus- 
tices of the peace, supervisors of elections, and in the 
city law department, as well as on boards and special 
commissions. 

^-Henrietta Szold, 



NOTES 



The sources of extracts are indicated by the titles in brackets; 
M. H. S. refers to fund publications of the Maryland Historical 
Society; J. H. U. to the Johns Hopkins University Studies in 
Historical and Political Science, edited by Dr. J. M. Vincent, 
J. H. Hollander and W. W. Willoughby. Prior to 1882 the editor 
of these studies was the late Prof. H. B. Adams. 



Alsop, George (1638 — ). — An Englishman who settled in Mary- 
land and wrote "A Character of the Province of Maryland" 
(London, 1066) in a laudatory vein, for the purpose of encourag- 
ing immigration to the province; Alsop i3 said to have been a 
redemptioner, or indentured servant. [M. H. S., No. 15, 1880.] 

Archer, George W. — Native of Harford county; physician, 
novelist, historian. Voluminous writer on State and local history. 
[The Dismemberment of Maryland, M. H. S., No. 30, 1890.] 

Belisle, D. W. — [History of Independence Hall and Biogra- 
I phies of the Signers, Philadelphia, 1859.] 

Benton, Thomas Hart ( 1782-1858) .—Native of North Caro- 

olina; U. S. Senator from Missouri. Pinkney, William (1764- 

1822). Native of Annapolis, Md; died in Washington. Delegate 

i in General Assembly, Minister to Great Britain, United States 

1 Senator, Attorney-General of the United States; the most noted 

'•■ Maryland lawyer. [Thirty Years' View.] 

Bombaugh, Charles Carroll (1828-1906). — Native of Harris- 
| burg, Pa.; died in Baltimore. Physician and Civil War surgeon; 
! editor, journalist and author of several books; vice-president 
American Academy of Medicine. 

Bond, Beverly W., Jr. — Instructor in English at State Univer-* 
sity of Mississippi; author "Monroe's Mission to France." [State 
Government in Maryland, 1777-1781, J. H. U., Nos. 3-4, series 23.] 



234 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

Bowen, Rev. Littleton P. — Presbyterian clergyman of Worces- 
ter county, and author of a novel in which the history and work 
of Rev. Francis Makemie is detailed. Makemie (circa 1658-1708) 
came to America from Ireland and established the first Presby- 
terian church in this country at Snow Hill, 1683-84; organized 
the first presbytery and several congregations on the lower Eastern 
Shore of Maryland and elsewhere; was known as the "Apostle 
of the Accomac" and died on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. 
[The Days of Makemie; or, The Vine Planted: 1680-1708. Phila- 
delphia Presbyterian Board, 1885.] 

Bowie, Richard J. — Congressman and judge. He and A. B. 
Davis were two of the speakers at the centennial of the forma- 
tion of Montgomery county, 1876. 

Boyle, Esmeralda. — [Biographical Sketches of Distinguished 
Marylanders, Baltimore, 1887.] 

Brooks, Nathan Covington (1809-1898). — Native of Cecil 
and taught school in Cecil, Montgomery and Baltimore counties; 
principal Baltimore City Male Central High School, president 
Baltimore City Female College, which he founded in 1848, until 
its existence ceased in 1890, when he removed to Philadelphia. 
Historian, theologian, poet, journalist and author classical text- 
books; LL. D., Emory College, Ph.D., Ohio University, LL.D., 
Franklin and Marshall. [The Literary Amaranth, Philadelphia, 
1848.] 

Calvert, George Henry (1803-1889). — Native of Prince George's 
county; died in Newport, R. I. Graduate Harvard; editor, poet, 
dramatist. 

"Calvert's Colony" and "Counties of Maryland" are used by 
permission of . the Maryland State Board of Education, and are 
taken from the Teacher's Manual (1902), prepared by Dr. M. 
Bates Stephens, State Superintendent of Public Education. 

Cheeves, Mrs. E. W. Foote. — Native of Virginia; once resided 
in Baltimore city. [Sketches in Prose and Verse, 1849.] 

Churchill, Winston (1871 — ). — Native of St. Louis, Mis- 
souri, and graduate of U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, 1891; 
novelist. [Richard Carvel.] 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 235 

Creswell, John Angel James (1828-1891). — Native of Port 
Deposit, died at Elkton. Graduated with highest honors at 
Dickinson; admitted to Baltimore bar, 1850; Representative in 
Thirty-eighth Congress; United States Senator, 18G5-69; Post- 
master-General in Grant's first Cabinet; counsel for United States 
before Alabama Claims -Commission, 1874-76; LL.D., Dickinson, 
1871. Was chosen to pronounce eulogy on Henry Winter Davis 
(1817-1865) in House of Representatives, February 22, 1866; 
although not a member of the national legislature at the time 
of his death, Davis' memory was paid the unusual honor of public 
eulogy in the House. He was a native of Annapolis, practiced 
law in Alexandria and Baltimore, declined the nomination for 
Vice-President on the Republican ticket in 1860, served in Con- 
gress, 1S53-61, and again, 1863-65; one of the most brilliant men 
of his day; author and orator. 

Davis, George Lynn-Laohlan. — Lawyer, Commissioner of the 
Land Office, 1868. [Day-Star of American Freedom, 1855.] 

Dennis, Alfred Pearce (1869 — ). — Native of Worcester 
county; graduated from Princeton, 1891; instructor in history 
and assistant to Prof. William M. Sloane; Ph.D.. Princeton, 1893; 
professor of history Wesleyan University, 1893-1898; associate 
professor of history Smith College for six years, when failing 
health caused his retirement; now resides at Pocomoke City. 
Author of numerous historical papers and noted lecturer. [Ora- 
tion before General Assembly of Maryland, March 5, 1894, upon 
the occasion of the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary 
of the removal of the capital from St. Mary's.] 

Dennis, Amanda Elizabeth. — Native of that part of Worces- 
ter county now included in Wicomico; long a teacher in the pub- 
lic schools of the latter and author of numerous poems. [Aspho- 
dels and Pansies. J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 1888.] 

Dickinson, John (1732-1808).— Born at "Crosiadore," Talbot 
county; died at Wilmington, Delaware. Lawyer and publicist; 
served in Pennsylvania and Delaware Legislatures, was governor 
of both States and represented them at different times in Con- 
gress; aided in establishment of Dickinson College, which is named 
after him; brigadier-general in Revolution; opposed adoption of 



236 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

the Declaration of Independence, but was afterward foremost 
among its supporters; wrote many state papers, Colonial and 
Revolutionary, including "The Declaration on Taking up Arms," 
adopted July 6, 1775, and reported to Congress by a committee 
including Thomas Johnson of Maryland; Rutledge, Franklin, 
Jay, Jefferson. [The Declaration on Taking Up Arms, 1775.] 

Gelletly, J. F. — Resident of Baltimore city; poet and news- 
paper writer. 

Goddard, Henry P. (1842 — ). — Native of Connecticut; a cap- 
tain in the Federal army during the Civil War; author. [Luther 
Martin, "The Federal Bulldog," M. H. S., 24, 1887.] 

Hadel, Albert K. — A Baltimore physician . [Oration at un- 
veiling of monument over grave of General Smallwood, in Charles 
county, July 4, 1898.] 

Hall, Clayton C. — Baltimorean; lawyer, lecturer on Maryland 
Colonial history; author "The Lords Baltimore." [The Great 
Seal of Maryland, M. H. S. No. 23, 1885.] 

Harbaugh, Thomas C. (1849 — ). — Native of Middletown, 
Frederick county, but has resided in Ohio since infancy; poet 
and novelist; secretary of the Maryland Association of Ohio. 
[Alice of Maryland; poems. [ 

Higgins, Edwin (1841 — ). — Native of Montgomery county. 
Lawyer, and long a practitioner at the Baltimore bar; lecturer 
on patriotic subjects, legal author and poet. 

Howard, John Eager (1752-1827). — Native of Baltimore 
county; active in raising troops at the outbreak of the Revolu- 
tion; captain in the Flying Camp in 1776 and fought at White 
Plains; major Fourth Maryland regiment, 1777; served in the 
Continental Congress, 1787; Governor of Maryland, 1788; declined 
appointment as Secretary of War, 1795, in Washington's Cabinet. 
[Memoir.] 

Ingle, Edward (1861 — ). — Native of Baltimore city. Graduate 
Johns Hopkins University; journalist, writer on economics. Cap- 
tain Richard Ingle, a mariner and trader in the colonial period, 
has been rather severely dealt with by Maryland historians, but 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 237 

later research has not viewed his activities in the troubled politics 
of his time so harshly. [Captain Richard Ingle, the Maryland 
"Pirate and Rebel," 1642-1653. M. H. S., No. 19, 1884.] 

Johnson, Bradley Tyler (1829-1903) .—Native of Frederick 
city; died in Amelia county, Virginia. State's Attorney of Fred- 
erick county, 1851; raised a regiment at beginning of Civil War 
and entered the Confederate army; brigadier-general of cavalry, 
C. S. A., 1864; State Senator in Virginia Legislature, 1875-1879; 
returned to Maryland and practiced law in Baltimore. [The 
Founding of the Eastern Shore: Centennial Address at Easton, 
Maryland, July 26, 1888. J 

Kennedy, John Pendleton (1795-1870). — Native of Baltimore 
city; died in Newport. Lawyer, Speaker Maryland House of 
Delegates, Representative in 25th, 27th and 28th Congresses; 
Secretary of the Navy under Fillmore, and fitted out Perry's 
expedition to Japan and Kane's second Arctic expedition; LL.D. 
Harvard; lecturer, essayist, public speaker, novelist, biographer; 
wrote a chapter for Thackeray in "The Virginians." His "Horse- 
shoe Robinson," a Revolutionary tale of the Carolinas, is widely 
known. [Rob of the Bowl; a Legend of St. Inigoes. A Legend 
of Maryland — the story of George Talbot — in Atlantic Monthly, 
1860. Discourse on George Calvert, First Lord Baltimore, M. 
H. S., 1845.] 

Key, Francis Scott (1779-1843). — Native of Frederick — now 
Carroll — county, and was a fellow law student with Taney, whose 
wife was his sister; educated at St. John's College; practiced 
law at Frederick, 1801-09; removed to Georgetown, D. C. ; United 
States Attorney District of Columbia; died in Baltimore. Wrote 
"Lord, With Glowing Heart I'd Praise Thee," a hymn generally 
used in Protestant churches. The Lick monument to Key, in 
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, was unveiled in 1887, and 
another monument over his grave at Frederick was erected in 
1898. [Poems, with an introductory letter by Chief Justice 
Taney, preface by Rev. Dr. H. V. D. Johns, 1857.] 

Kilty, William (1758-1821). — Native of Maryland. Physician, 
lawyer, poet; surgeon in Fifth Maryland Regiment during the 
Revolution; chief justice District of Columbia, 1801; Chancellor 



238 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

of Maryland, 180G-1821; the High Court of Chancery, established 
1777, was abolished by the Constitution of 1851. Kilty compiled 
laws of Maryland, 1799. He wrote "The Spirit of Maryland in 
1794" for a Fourth of July dinner at Alexandria, Va., and it 
was sung by S. Hanson. General Washington was a guest and 
at the first verse, copied from the old English song, "The English 
merchants and Tories were much pleased, and General Washing- 
ton showed some surprise," but the third verse changed the feel- 
ing of the loyalists. [Our Country, I860.] 

Latimer, E. W. — [International Review.] 

Lowdkkmilk, William H. — Native of Cumberland; resided in 
Washington city. [History of Cumberland. | 

Marine, William Mathew (1843-1905). — Native of Sharp- 
town, then in Somerset county; died in Baltimore city, where 
he had resided since 1854. Admitted to the bar, 1864; practicing 
lawyer, writer, poet, public speaker; delivered many historical 
addresses; Collector of the Port of Baltimore under President 
Harrison. Author "The Nanticoke" and "History of the British 
Invasion of Maryland During the War of 1812." Major-General 
Robebt Ross (circa 1766-1814), commander-in-chief of the Brit- 
ish armies in America, had previously distinguished himself on 
the Continent. The Prince Regent conferred on his widow and 
descendants the honorary distinction "of Bladensburg," to be 
added to the family name. The holder of the courtesy title 
(DeBrett) is Lt.-Col. John Foster Ross-of-Bladensburg, C. B., 
Rosstrevor, County Down, Ireland. The family crest is "An 
arm in general's uniform issuant out of a mural crown and 
grasping the broken flagstaff of the standard of the United 
Stales;" mottoes, per aspera virtus, Bladensburg. [Battle of 
North Point and other Poems, Baltimore, 1903.] 

Maryland Day. — Originated in a resolution adopted by the 
State Board of Education, in February, 1903, and was recognized 
by the General Assembly of 1904, which enacted that "Maryland 
Day shall be observed at such a time and in such manner as the 
State Board of Education may direct." The Board in 1903 sug- 
gested the observance of March 25, the date of the landing of the 
lirst colonists, as a day to be "devoted in all the public schools 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 239 

to the effective presentation of some particular event in the 
history of the State." When that date fell on Sunday, in 1905, 
Governor Edwin Warfield, by proclamation, designated the pre- 
ceding Saturday for the observance. The topics treated have 
been: 1904, The Landing of the Maryland Pilgrims; 1905, Re- 
ligious Toleration in Maryland; 1906, Maryland's Influence in 
Founding a National Commonwealth ; 1907, Beginnings of Popu- 
lar Government in Maryland; 1908, Maryland's Part in Winning 
Our Independence; 1909, Maryland's Contribution to American 
Literature. 

Mayer, Brantz. — A former president of the Maryland Historical 
Society and author. [Logan and Cresap.] 

McGirr, Michael A. — Poet; his "Lays of a Laborer" was pub- 
lished in 1868 by Longnecker Bros. & Conner, Towson. 

McJilton, John N., D.D. (1805-1875). — Native of Baltimore 
city; died in New York city. Protestant Episcopal clergyman, 
journalist, poet; superintendent public schools, Baltimore city; 
removed to New York, 1868. [Poems, 1840.] 

McKinsey, Folgeb (1806 — ). — Native of Elkton, now resident 
of Anne Arundel. Journalist, poet; in newspaper work since 
1884; former editor Elkton Whig, Frederick News; editorial staff 
Baltimore News, Washington Post; now with Baltimore Sun; 
pen name, "The Bentztown Bard;" a prolific writer; his poems 
on Maryland subjects and child life in the Sun have gained him 
wide reputation. A collection of his poems, "A Rose of the Old 
Regime," was published in 1907. (Doxey Book Shop, Baltimore.) 

McMahon, John Van Lear (1800-1871). — Native of Cumber- 
land and died there ; graduated from Princeton with highest 
honors, 1817. Lawyer, legislator, orator; removed to Baltimore, 
1826; active and influential in many reform movements; drafted 
charter of Baltimore & Ohio Railroad; declined several high of- 
fices; although having a national reputation as an orator, would 
never make a speech outside his native State; projected on a 
comprehensive scale "An Historical View of the Government of 
Maryland," only one volume of which was published (1831) 
and which, popularly known as McMahon's History of Maryland, 
is a work of the greatest merit and authority. McMahon re- 



240 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

linquished the practice of the law in 1855 because of failing 
eyesight. St. John's College conferred on him the degree of 
Doctor of Laws, 1869. [An Historical View of the Government 
of Maryland.] 

Meekins, Lynn R. — Native of Dorchester county; journalist 
and author. [Adam Rush.] 

Morgan, George (1854 — ). — Native of Concord, Delaware. 
Journalist, residing in Philadelphia, and one of the editors of the 
Philadelphia Record; novelist and biographer. "John Littlejohn 
of J.," from which an extract is taken, was the first, in point 
of time, of the numerous American Revolutionary novels pub- 
lished in recent years. [John Littlejohn of J. Lippincott's, 
Philadelphia, 1896.] 

Palmer, John Williamson (1825-1906) .—Native of Baltimore 
city. Graduate in medicine, University of Maryland, 1847; 
traveler, journalist, poet; associate editor Century Dictionary; 
author numerous magazine articles on Maryland. "The Maryland 
Battalion" was written for the dedication of the monument in 
Prospect Park, Brooklyn, N. Y., "in honor of Maryland's Four 
Hundred, who on this battlefield, August 27, 1776, saved the 
American army." [Certain Worthies and Dames of Old Mary- 
land, Century, vol, 29.] 

Passano, Leonard Magruder. — Author of a history of Mary- 
land. [Maryland: Stories of Her People and of Her History.] 

Pearre, George A. (1860 — ). — Native of Cumberland. Ad- 
mitted to bar, 1882; State Senator from Allegany, 1890; State's 
Attorney of Allegany, 1895; in Congress from Sixth Maryland 
district since 1899. [Oration at unveiling of monument to 
"Maryland's Four Hundred," Small wood's regiment, August 27, 
1905, erected by the Maryland Society Sons of the American 
Revolution.] The Marylanders were in Lord Stirling's brigade 
and under command of Major Mordecai Gist, Colonel Smallwood 
being absent on court-martial duty. Stirling (1726-1783) was 
captured, and only thirteen of the Marylanders, with Gist, es- 
caped from the field. Gist (1743-1792) became brigadier-general, 
1779. He was "conspicuous alike for his splendid generalship and 
remarkable valor;" born in Baltimore city; died in Charleston, 
S. C. 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 241 

Pike, Albert (1809-1891). — Native of Massachusetts; died in 
Washington. Lawyer, poet, statesman, brigadier-general C. S. A. 
Was with May's regiment at Buena Vista. Col. Charles A. May 
(1819-1864), native of District of Columbia; graduate of West 
Point, chief of cavalry under Taylor, promoted major at Palo 
Alto, lieutenant-colonel at Resaca de la Palma, colonel at Buena 
Vi9ta; died in New York city. 

Pinkney, Rt. Rev. W t illiam (1810-1883). — Native of Annapo- 
lis and graduate of St. John's College; fifth Protestant Episco- 
pal Bishop of Maryland and the ninety-seventh in succession in 
the American episcopate; ordained deacon at Cambridge, 1835, 
and priest at Frederick, 1836; rector St. Andrew's, Somerset; 
St. Matthew's, Prince George's, and Ascension, Washington city; 
assistant bishop of Maryland, 1870, and succeeded Bishop Whit- 
tington, deceased, 1879. Author of life of his uncle, William 
Pinkney; poet. [Ernest Murray and Sonnets, 1869.] 

Randall, James Ryder (1839-1908). — Native of Baltimore 
city. Journalist and poet; spent most of his life in the South 
and wrote "Maryland, My Maryland," at Poydras College, La., 
in 1861, being then a professor in that institution; once an editor 
of the Baltimore American. This poem first appeared in the 
New Orleans Delta; is "probably the most famous, as it is the 
most stirring in its martial tone, of all that the war evoked." 
Oliver Wendell Holmes said of the poem: "My only regret is 
that I could not do for Massachusetts what Randall did for 
Maryland." 

Randall, John Wirt. — Native of Annapolis. Lawyer, bank 
president; State Senator, 1896-98. The poem, "To the Old Tulip 
Poplar," on St. John's College campus, first appeared in the St. 
John's Collegian, and was read at the unveiling of a bronze tablet 
placed on the tree, which bears the inscription: "This tablet is 
placed upon the Liberty Tree by the Peggy Stewart Tea Party 
Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, of Annapolis, 
Md., October 19th, 1907, to commemorate the First Treaty made 
here with the Susquehannocks in 1652; and that George Wash- 
ington, in 1791, and General Lafayette, in 1824, visited St. 
John's College. Through the munificence of James T. Wood- 
ward, of New York city, the Tree, estimated to be over 600 years 



242 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

old, has been preserved from decay." The tree is over thirty- 
four feet in circumference at its base and is said to be the largest 
tree east of the Rocky Mountains. Its trunk and main limbs have 
been since the earliest settlement hollow, although the tree has 
always seemed vigorous. Mr. Woodward, a native of Anne 
Arundel, expended over one thousand dollars in having the de- 
cayed wood cut away and in filling the hollow trunk and limbs 
with cement grouting, the largest piece of "tree dentistry" ever 
done in this country. It is thought that this will insure the 
life of the tree for other centuries to come. Over fifty-five tons 
of cement grouting were used in filling the cavities of the tree. 
Although the age of this tree is stated as "over 600 years," it 
is believed by experienced tree culturists that its age actually 
exceeds 800 years. 

Reese, Lizette Woodworth. — Native of Baltimore city and 
teacher of English in Western High School. [A Handful of Lav- 
ender. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston.] 

Riley, Elihu S. (1845 — ). — Native of Annapolis. Lawyer, 
journalist, historian; author histories of Annapolis and Anne 
Arundel county and of the General Assembly; joint author of a 
history of the bench and bar of Maryland; an accurate and 
authoritative writer. [Correspondence of Charles Carroll of Car- 
rollton (1737-1832) and Daniel Dulany (1721-1797), "First Citi- 
zen" and "Antillon;" The Early Bar of Maryland, Greenbag, 
November, 1900.] 

Scully, Denis J. (1865-1908).— Native of Baltimore city. 
Journalist, author and poet; secretary Irish Historical Society 
of Maryland; deputy clerk Court of Common Pleas, Baltimore; 
writer for the periodical press on subjects connected with history 
of the Irish in America, and of the Roman Catholic Church in 
Maryland. 

Senate Chamber. — In this historic room, in the old State 
House at Annapolis, Congress met in 1783, when Washington 
surrendered his commission as commander-in-chief of the Con- 
tinental army, and in January of the following year the treaty 
with Great Britain was ratified there. Two years later the 
convention of States which led to the convention of 1788 at 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 243 

Philadelphia, which formulated the federal constitution, met 
in the Senate chamber. In 1838 the room was refurnished, and 
in 1875 it was entirely remodeled. It was restored to its Co- 
lonial condition in 1905 under the supervision of a committee 
composed of Governor Edwin War field, J. Appleton Wilson, 
Clayton C. Hall, Dr. J. D. Iglehart, DeCourcy W. Thorn, Josias 
Pennington, John Wirt Randall, George H. Shafer. Mr. Thorn 
made a report of the work of the commission, from which the 
extract is taken. 

Shellman, Harry Jones (1843-1894). — Native of Westmin- 
ster; died in New York city. Journalist, poet; editor West- 
minster Sentinel, Indianapolis (Ind.) News, Texas Sif tings. "He 
was a gentleman of generous and noble character, sincere in his 
friendships and upright and pure in his life. "Cole's Cavalry," 
First Regiment Potomac Home Brigade, Maryland Volunteers, 
U. S. A., was one of the most noted bodies of mounted troops 
on either side during the Civil War. Its colonel, Henry A. Cole, 
and lieutenant-colonel, George W. P. Vernon, both natives of 
Frederick, and both now residing in Baltimore city, fought 
throughout the war with this command, which entered the con- 
flict in 1861 as a battalion, but grew to regimental strength 
and, either as a whole or in part, participated in nearly a hun- 
dred engagements, from Gettysburg, Pa., to Lynchburg, Va. The 
poem aptly describes the life of Cole's men. Western Maryland 
was predominated largely by Union sentiment, and the personnel 
of Cole's Cavalry was almost exclusively from that section. 
"They were farmers' and planters' sons, mainly, in good circum- 
stances, who ow r ned good horses, which they brought with them 
into the military service . . . were young, unmarried men, in- 
telligent, enthusiastic, accustomed to the use of firearms; in 
fact, the very best material for cavalrymen," and for four years 
were almost constantly in the saddle. Mr. Shellman's poem was 
suggested by an old veteran's praise of "Lion," whom he had 
brought to a Decoration Day parade with a wreath of roses 
around his neck, when some young men made a jocular offer to 
buy the venerable steed. 

Silver. John Archer. — [The Provisional Government of Mary- 
land, 1774-1777. J. H. U.I 



244 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

Smith. John Philemon. — Resides at Sharpsburg. Teacher, 
poet and writer on local history. 

Soran. Charles. — Resident of Baltimore city in first half of 
nineteenth century. Dedicated his published collection of poems 
to Rev. Dr. McJilton and Dr. Nathan C. Brooks. George Armi- 
stead. a Virginian (circa 1780-1818) as a major of the United 
States army, commanded at Fort McHenry in 1814. [The 
Patapsco and Other Poems, Baltimore, 1842.] 

St. Clair, Sir John. — Came to America in 1755 as deputy 
quartermaster-general of the British forces, and built the first 
road across uie mountains of Western Maryland, known as the 
"Braddock Road." He was shot through the body at Braddock's 
defeat, but soon recovered; his home was in Argyleshire, Scot- 
land, to which he returned late in life. "Sir John's Run" was 
named after him. 

Steiner, Bernard C. (1807 — ). — Ph.D., Yale, 1891; succeeded 
his father, Dr. Lewis H. Steiner — a native of Frederick (1827- 
1892) — as librarian Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore; author 
of many titles on Maryland history and frequent contributor to 
periodicals; associate in history Johns Hopkins University; dean 
and professor public law, Baltimore Law School. Governor Eden 
(1741-1784) was a native of Durham. England; married Caroline 
Calvert, daughter of Charles, fifth Lord Baltimore; Gen. Chas. 
Lee ordered his arrest, 1776, but Council of Safety refused to 
obey; Eden's grandson. Sir Frederick, was killed at battle of 
New Orleans; Caroline county and Caroline street, Baltimore, 
were named after Lady Fdcn. and Eden street after the Gov- 
ernor; county seat of Caroline was originally (1773) named 
Eden-Town. The baronetcv of Maryland and courtesy title of 
Ross-of-Bladensburg (see Marine) appear in the English peer- 
ages. Sir William Eden, baronet of Maryland, U. S. A. (De- 
brett) is fifth of the line and seventh baron of Auckland. [Life 
and Administration of Sir Robert Eden, J. H. U., Nos. 7-9, 16th 
series. Western Maryland in the Revolution, J. H. U., No. 1, 
20th series; Beginnings of Maryland, J. H. U., Nos. 8, 9, 10, 21st 
series.] 

Taney, Roger Brooke (1777-1864). — Native of Calvert county; 
died in Washington. Graduate of Dickinson, 1795; admitted to 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 245 

the bar, 1799, locating at Prince Frederick; in House of Delegates 
same year; removed to Frederick, 1801; defended General James 
Wilkinson, also a native of Calvert, 1811, before a court-martial, 
on charges growing out of the Burr conspiracy; State Senator, 
1816-21; removed to Baltimore, 1823; Attorney-General of Mary- 
land, 1827, and of United States, 1831; Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, 1833, and Chief Justice United States Supreme Court, 1836- 
1864; buried at Frederick. 

Thom, DeCourcy W. — Resides at Blakeford, Queenstown, Mary- 
land; active in public affairs; writer and speaker. Frederic 
Emory (1853-1908). A native of Queen Anne's; journalist and 
attache Department of State, Washington. 

Thomas, James W. — Lawyer, Cumberland. School commis- 
sioner Allegany county. [Chronicles of Colonial Maryland.] 

Thomas, John, Esq., of West River. — Poet; wrote in latter 
half of eighteenth century. ["From the Genius of America," 
inscribed to Washington on his return to Mount Vernon, De- 
cember, 1783. Extracts in Prose and Verse by a Lady of Mary- 
land. Published by Frederick Green, Annapolis, 1808.] 

Thurston, Lucy Meacham (1862 — ). — Native of Virginia; 
resides in Baltimore city. Novelist. [Mistress Brent; A Story 
of Lord Baltimore's Colony in 1638. Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 
1901.] 

Todd, Robert W. (1831-1906).— Native of Caroline county; died 
in Baltimore city. For 53 years Methodist Episcopal clergyman, 
entering Wilmington Conference, 1853; graduate of Dickinson; 
member Constitutional Convention of 1864; Register of Wills of 
Caroline county; agent Maryland Bible Society. [Methodism of 
the Peninsula, Philadelphia, 1885.] 

Townsend, George Alfred (1841 — ). — Native of Georgetown, 
Delaware; journalist, author and poet. The scenes of his "Katy 
of Catoctin" are laid on the Western Shore, and those of "The 
Entailed Hat" on the Eastern. Also wrote "Tales of the Chesa- 
peake" and several unpublished novels relating to Maryland. Cor- 
respondent in the field during the Civil War* and later at Wash- 
ington; voluminous writer on history and politics; resides at 



246 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 

Gapland, Washington county. Commodore Stephen Decatur 
(1779-1820) was a native of Worcester county; killed at Bladens- 
burg in a duel with Commodore Barron. General William H. 
Winder (1775-1820) was a native of Somerset county; died in 
Baltimore. He commanded at the battle of Bladensburg, 1814, 
after having performed distinguished service in the North; lawyer 
and State Senator. Governor Henry A. Wise, of Virginia ( 1806- 
J876), was a noted Congressman and a brigadier-general in the 
Confederate army. 

Wallace, Adam. — A Methodist Episcopal clergyman and biog- 
rapher of the "Island Parson," Joshua Thomas. Thomas ( 1776- 
1853) was a native of Somerset. 

Wallis, Severn Teackle (1816-1894). — Native of Baltimore 
city. Began study of law under William Wirt and attained 
highest distinction at the bar; publicist, poet, civil service -re- 
former, legislator; president Maryland Historical Society, provost 
University of Maryland; LL.D., St. Mary's College, St. John's. 
His writings have been published in four volumes (John Murphy 
& Co., Baltimore, 1896). Mr. Wallis possessed one of the keenest 
and most brilliant intellects ever known in Maryland. [Address 
at unveiling of the statue of Chief Justice Taney in front of the 
State House, Annapolis, December 10, 1872.] 

Welby, Mrs. Amelia B. Coppuck (1819-1852). — Native of St. 
Michael's; died in Louisville, Ky. Poet; pen name, "Amelia." 
Her longest poem, "Pulpit Eloquence," describes the preaching 
at St. Michael's of Rev. T. H. Stockton, a Methodist Protestant 
clergyman, afterward chaplain House of Representatives and 
United States Senate, and half-brother of Frank R. Stockton, the 
novelist. [Pulpit Eloquence.] 

White, Rev. Andrew, Society of Jesus (1579-1656). — Native of 
London; accompanied first colonists to Maryland, and his "rela- 
tion" of the voyage and early settlement is authoritative; in 
1644 he was sent in chains to England by Claiborne's followers 
and died there. [Narrative of a Voyage to Maryland. M. H. S., 
No. 7, 1874.] 

White, John T.— Native of Middletown, Maryland; for fifteen 
years principal of Union Street School, Cumberland; County 



MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 247 

School Superintendent of Allegany for six years; since August, 
1908, County Superintendent of Frederick; lecturer and poet. 

Whittieb, John Gbeenleaf (1807-1892). — Native of Massa- 
chusetts and called the "Quaker Poet." Mrs. E. D. E. N. South- 
worth, the novelist, and Dorothea L. Dix, the Union army nurse, 
supplied Whittier with the story on which he based "Barbara 
Frietchie" and he said as late as November, 1885: "Of the 
substantial truth of the heroism of Barbara Frietchie I can have 
no doubt; she was the boldest and most outspoken Unionist in 
Frederick, and manifested it to the rebel army in an unmistaka- 
ble manner." Col. G. W. F. Vernon relates an incident of the 
old woman's clash with a Confederate soldier, who, while Long- 
street's corps in passing her house joked with her, pulled down 
her little flag with his bayonet, but says that the "rebels" took 
the old woman's vocal disapproval good-humoredly. Gen. Brad- 
ley T. Johnson, present with Lee's army in the march through 
Frederick, denied that there was any foundation for Whittier's 
poem. As a classic in American literature, however, it is des- 
tined to live and the lacking of fact is atoned for by poetic 
license. In a note in the Century (vol. 29) Dr. J. W. Palmer 
says: "To Mrs. Sara Andrew Shafer, a lady who had written 
gracefully and lovingly of 'Old Frederick,' I am indebted for 
reminiscences which curiously connect the name of the patriot 
governor with that of a staunch old woman whose fame a patriot 
poet has identified with the banner Tom Johnson delighted to 
glorify. In the year following the Revolution General Wash- 
ington was on several occasions the guest of Governor Johnson 
in Frederick. Once, at a supper given in his honor at 'The 
Tavern,' a cup of tea was poured (from a teapot still reverently 
cherished) by the hands of a young girl whom we all know now 
as Barbara Frietchie." 

Wilhelm, Lewis W. — [Sir George Calvert, Baron of Baltimore. 
M. H. S., No. 20, 1884.] 

Wilson, James Grant (1832 — ). — Native of Scotland. Fed- 
eral soldier in the Civil War; author. [A Maryland Manor. 
M. H. S., 30, 1890.] 

Wilson, Robert. — Magazine writer. Paca (K40-1799) began 
his legal career in Annapolis in 1766; was elected governor in 



248 MARYLAND IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



1782 and appointed chief judge of the General Court, 1778, chief 
judge Court of Appeals and Admiralty, 1780, and by Washing- 
ton judge of the District of Maryland, 1789. He was born and 
died at Wye Hall. [Wye Island. Lippincott's, April, 1877.] 

Yellott, Coleman (1821-1870). — Native of Baltimore county; 
died in Leesburg, Va. Lawyer; Delegate in General Assembly 
from Harford county; State Senator from Baltimore city; in 
Confederate service during Civil War; brother of Judge George 
Yellott. [Poems, 1850.] 

Yellott, George (1819-1902). — Native of Baltimore county; 
died in Towson. Admitted to Baltimore bar, 1841, and practiced 
at Belair, removing to Towson, 1858; chief judge Third Judicial 
Circuit, 1867-1889, and associate judge Court of Appeals. Author 
several volumes satire, drama, poetry. Major Samuel Ring- 
gold, U. S. army (1800-1846) was a native of Washington county, 
son of General Samuel Ringgold, graduate of West Point, aide 
to General Winfield Scott; mortally wounded at Palo Alto May 
8, 1846, dying at Point Isabel, Texas,May 11; commanded flying 
artillery in Taylor's army. [Maid of Peru and Other Poems.] 



Babcock, William H. — A Washington lawyer, novelist and 
poet. [Kent Fort Manor, 1903. Tower of Wye, 1901. Lays 
From Over Sea. London, 1882.] 

Battle Monument. — Calvert street, Baltimore; erected in mem- 
ory of the Americans killed at the battle of North Point, 1814. 
Some of the names borne on the monument are referred to in 
Mr. Marine's poem, p. 106. VI O c\ 

Maryland Revolutionary Monument. — On Mount Royal Plaza, 
Baltimore, erected by the Maryland Society Sons of the American 
Revolution. 

Searight, Thomas B. — Resident of Uniontown, Pa. [The Old 
Pike, a history of the National Road.] 

Szold, Henrietta. — [Jewish Encyclopedia.] 

Tuttle, John Ellery. — [New England Magazine, Vol. 28.] 



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